'^z; 













w 



*!* • I*, ■ 







'•r 



■.•V:-.v.;'-! •. 






/:>-.> -'iJ. 


, 


■'••'■,•■■" 




« 


■ 'v 



{'.• 



' » ' 









■-y 






%. V* 






. r 



V 



s V 






.3^ %. 



'\ 






>\\ .,^'«,_i?b_ "^^ 



. O ► s ^ * * A 



%^^ 

xV ./>_ 









A~> 



'"^ 



^-V^ 






.N * 




■x^-^' ■% 



^^\- 









..-?■' 



O 0^ 



\" ^^ 



^0- -o % 



^0^ 









'^A V* 



.^\o'5 



^/l^^^S . 



^0 



■c 



^ 

^/J- 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 



AND 



EXERCISE FOR WOMEN 



PREFACE. 



'nnO make an already good thing better, not to 
-^ lead a forlorn hope for improving incurable 
invalids, would seem to be the privilege of the 
American girl as regards her own physique. 

Physically equal, as we believe she is upon the 
whole, to her traditional great-grandmother, her 
opportunities to add to her present stock of health 
are infinitely greater than were accorded to this 
ancestor. The obstacles to her better physical 
development are for the most part due to igno- 
rance and to custom; and these, beginning in her 
early years and continuing to maturity, largely 
concern her school-life, the restriction of her body 
by dress, and its limitation from lack of sufficient 
exercise. 

Her direct environment, so far as it concerns 
the essentials of fairly healthy homes, an abundance 
of food and sleep, and the absence of exhausting 



vi PREFACE. 

toil during the period of growth, is generally 
favourable to physical development; and for that 
reason the influence of food and kindred topics 
have not been included in this little volume. The 
intention has rather been to lay stress upon the 
conditions, already alluded to, which aff*ect girls as 
a class, everywhere, the conviction being absolute 
that the physical development which might be 
theirs can only be gained by a reform in these 
conditions as they now exist. 

The writer seizes this opportunity to express her 
cordial thanks to the two ladies who kindly posed 
for the photographs from which the illustrations of 
the book are mainly taken, as well as to those who 
allowed her the opportunity of taking some spe- 
cial measurements here mentioned. 

M. T. B. 



X. ^"^'Ols^Sfc. v^.^<^^ 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 



AND 



EXERCISE FOR M/OMEN 



BY 



MARY TAYLOR BISSELL, M.D. 

AUTHOR OF *' HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE " 



t 




.---.RV OP Co,v . 

NOV L.. ..„, Ji i 

NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

1891 



Copyright, 1891, 
By Dodd, Mead and Company. 



All rights reserved. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



' 



CONTENTS. 



♦ 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Symmetry and Health i 

II. How WE Grow , . . . 8 

III. How Environment may Influence Growth i 7 

IV. The Influence of Dress on Physical 

Development 24 

V. The Influence of School on Physical 

Development 41 

VI. The Influence of Exercise on Develop- 
ment 58 

VII. Some Things that Exercise will do for 

THE Body 67 

VIII. The Ways and Means for Exercise . . 79 
IX. Practical Suggestions 91 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 



CHAPTER I. 

SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 

THE ideal of health is that happy condition of un- 
consciousness of the body which is only possible 
when every part of it is perfectly developed and equal 
to the performance of its function. The embodiment 
of this ideal is, unfortunately, not a common one; and 
we shall, perhaps, have to turn to that picture of noble 
young womanhood with which we please our imagina- 
tions to find the combination of flesh and spirit which 
satisfies our sense of physical perfection. 

Wherever she is found, this creature of grace and 
vigour, of health and activity, she will always answer to 
the one great requirement of harmony of structure, not 
only in outline but in entity. Graceful she must be, 
but she will be also something better than this ; hers are 
the curves that mark a well-knit frame, supple in joint 
and strong in Umb. Soft colour she will have, but her 
clear tints are only the visible sign of the active heart and 



2 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

the generous lungs which mix this carmine for her cheek ; 
while the reserve power that animates her pliant but 
vigorous figure is the power that comes from a well- 
developed and balanced nervous system which is the 
competent ruler of this beautiful kingdom. If we try 
to analyze the secret of her charm, we shall still find 
that it lies largely in the sense of harmony she gives 
us ; and this not because we recognize her perfect 
outlines only (we are accustomed to the art dictum 
that calls for the proportion of one part to another, that 
demands a fine relation of shoulders and chest, waist and 
limbs), but also because we feel that the internal struc- 
tures, upon whose health and harmony the maintenance 
of the entire body depends, are equally developed 
according to their laws of proportion. So that her 
graceful outlines are but the symbol of the harmony that 
rules within. 

It should be made plain to all concerned that physical 
development, in its best sense, depends upon the har- 
monious growth of the entire organism. As a matter of 
fact, many of the familiar instances of ill health, deformity, 
and even disease, that we see about us are the result of 
the unsymmetrical development of one or another part 
of the body reacting upon the whole. 

Let us look, for instance, a moment at the possible 
result to the body, in general, of an unsymmetrical de- 
velopment of the skeleton. 



SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 3 

The function of the skeleton is to give soHdity to the 
figure, to offer protective cages for the different vital 
organs, to form the organs of locomotion, and to afford 
points of attachment for the muscles which move the 
body. With all of these functions it is easy to under- 
stand that a failure of the skeleton to develop properly, 
either in shape or size or constitution, might have a 
serious effect both upon the health, vigour, and sym- 
metry of the individual. 

There is, in fact, a disease of the bones known as 
rickets, somewhat common among children, especially in 
foreign countries, which is a striking illustration of this 
point. In this affection the bones are deficient in lime 
salts, so that their unnatural softness permits them to be 
flattened, often seriously changed in shape, and pushed 
out of place through the weight of the body pressing 
upon them. The so-called bow-legs of children, some- 
times seen among the poorer dwellers of a city, are gen- 
erally due to this affection ; and in severe cases the ribs 
and the breast bone may be so flattened or distorted and 
the spinal column may be so bent as seriously to affect 
the shape and reduce the diameters of the chest. 

It will be easily imagined from what we know of the 
chest as a capacious cage containing the heart and lungs 
and blood-vessels which these organs are intended to 
fill, that anything which by reducing its size interferes 
with their full activity must have a serious effect upon 



4 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

their development, and upon the health of the individ- 
ual. Nature, we know, abhors a vacuum ; and therefore 
if the chest cavity or thorax be capacious the lungs will 
expand and grow to fill it, the heart will be stimulated 
by their demands to grow to its full size, and the entire 
body will be the gainer in harmonious development. 
But if, through disease or lack of proper nurture, the 
growth of the chest be interfered with, the lungs cannot ex- 
pand to their full capacity, the heart, lacking their stimulus, 
will be similarly limited, and the entire body suffers. 

We find, in fact, that children who suffer from rickets 
have smaller lungs than others not so affected, and that 
partly owing to the unusual relation of their chest organs 
they are specially liable to respiratory diseases. 

In marked cases of rickets we also find that the bones 
of the pelvis are seriously affected, so that this cavity is 
smaller than normal in some important directions, being 
flattened or otherwise deformed in shape. Such deform- 
ity occurring in girls has a most unfortunate result upon 
the functions of motherhood. 

So that, as we have seen, an affection which at first 
thought appears to limit the growth of some of the bones 
of the skeleton only, is found in many cases to i^terfere, 
through this limitation, with the growth of the most vital 
organs of the body, and even if no actual deformity be 
present will seriously curtail the physical powers of the 
individual. 



SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 5 

Fortunately, these extreme cases of unsymmetrical 
development of the skeleton are very rare, although the 
lesser degrees are quite common ; but they serve as 
illustrations of the fact that health and beauty alike 
depend upon the law of harmony of structure and pro- 
portionate development of every part, and that, in the 
intimate relations that every part of the body bears to 
every other, deficient development of any one region 
cannot exist without affecting other regions unfavourably. 
And that which is true in these marked cases of dis- 
ease is equally true to a lesser degree wherever bodily 
development is disproportionate. 

A midget whose organs are all proportionately developed 
and vigorous, might possibly, in the sense of equalized 
power and health that results, have more satisfaction and 
every-day enjoyment out of hfe than a disproportioned 
giant, whose long legs gave him the locomotive power of 
a Seven- Leagued Boots, but whose lung development did 
not support him in their active use. 

The harmonious development of the body has a very 
practical relation, not only to ideal health but also 
to our enjoyment of life, and for this reason : We shall 
find, whether in work or play, that the body is practically 
only as strong as its weakest part, and that instead of 
living up to the capacity of enjoyment of the healthiest 
and finest parts of our organism we are dominated by 
the vexatious limitations of our weakest ; so that, physi- 



6 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

cally, the poorest and not the best of us is the standard 
for what we can do or become. 

The man with a magnificent frame and splendid mus- 
cles cannot save himself in a race for his life because way 
off in a corner of his heart is a tiny valve which has 
been leaking like a broken dam for years, and at the 
supreme moment of necessity this imperfection becomes 
the dominating element of his othenvise superb physique ; 
so that instead of being able to endure fatigue with the 
vigour of his best organs, he is vanquished by the weak- 
ness of his poorest. 

Equally true does the principle hold with the student, 
the athlete, the society girl, in large or trivial matters. 
The weakness of an unhappy stomach disorders a great 
imagination, a tired back ends the tennis game, a pair of 
weak ankles spoil the dance. Nine tenths of our body 
may be equal to the effort ; but if the one remaining 
tenth has collapsed entirely, the sport for us is over. 
Which truth goes far to teach us how well it may be, 
for purely selfish reasons if for no other, to give to the 
growing body every opportunity for developing bone and 
muscle and brain and vital organs v.o their best capacity 
and in their most healthful relations, — not only for health's 
sake, or for art's sake, but also for the sake of the full 
scope and enjoyment of life. 

If it be true, as it certainly is, that we have it in our 
power to affect the physical development of the body by 



SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 7 

bringing certain influences to bear upon it, this must be 
because some of the laws that govern it are susceptible 
of modification. If we will take the trouble to consider 
for a moment by what slow degrees and far-reaching 
processes growth is affected, we shall perhaps more easily 
see some natural reasons why we are able to influence 
the body for better or for worse. 



CHAPTER 11. 

HOW WE GROW. 

ONE of the most fascinating studies for an intelli- 
gent curiosity is that of the ways and means by 
which a strong- limbed and conscious human being has 
been developed from the tiny and insignificant cell which 
we know to have been his origin. Doubtless some of 
its fascination lies in the mystery which surrounds it, for 
in the truest sense we do not know how we grow, nor 
how to explain the mysterious principle we call life. 

Neither can we explain the miracle of the growth of 
a single morning-glory that we may have planted in 
embryo in our summer garden, its tiny black seed unat- 
tractive and hopeless to the eye ; but we know that in 
due time, with the wooing of the sun and the dew and 
the summer wind it will issue from its dark robing-room 
in a dress of transparent azure or softest pink, to bloom 
an ethereal messenger from Nature's kingdom, — perfect, 
but unexplained. However, if we cannot explain the 
miracle we still enjoy ferreting out what little we can 



HOW WE GROW. 9 

about the conditions that favour its recurrence, and 
learning how we may help to furnish these. So if 
we cannot truthfully claim to know exactly how a hu- 
man being grows, we do at least know something about 
the phenomena that attend its growth, and something 
about the conditions under which this is possible. 

We have learned from scientific observers a few 
definite and important things about growth. We know 
that human beings, like all the rest of created things, 
originated from a single soft and almost formless cell, 
called the ovum. That this cell having divided into two, 
and these divisions still further dividing and subdividing, 
we have an aggregation of cells that we call the embryo. 
At first these tiny cells are all alike, and in the beginning 
of their existence have nothing to mark them as anything 
different in origin or destiny from the cells of the lowest 
polyp or the humblest plant. Little by little, however, 
this company of cells begins to increase in size, and, 
beginning also to disperse somewhat within the confines 
of their prison walls, they show at the same time a ten- 
dency to differ from one another, both in appearance and 
in function. And here comes in the principle of the 
division of labour in the body ; for now instead of this 
aggregation of cells all trying to perform as best they 
can the same offices of digestion, respiration, and loco- 
motion and all the other functions necessary to human 
beings, they become, on the contrary, speciahsts in their 



lO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

community. Some are called to give solidity to this 
shapeless mass ; these are the cells which are to secrete 
lime and other salts which help to form the skeleton. 
Another company is set apart to form the tissues which 
are eventually to move this skeleton ; these are the mus- 
cles cells, which in time, along with the other changes tak- 
ing place in their shape and appearance, develop the prop- 
erty peculiar to muscles, — namely, contraction. A third 
company fills the office of oxygen- carrier to the body at 
large ; these are the red-blood cells, — while still another 
develops the power to supply fluids of various kinds 
which are essential to the solution and digestion of the 
body's food. 

Then there are the cells whose high office it is to take 
command of all this varied community, to co-ordinate 
and combine their efforts into a harmonious whole, and 
to transmit the orders for action from the central gov- 
erning department to all the different members. These, 
of course, are the nerve cells. And so we might go on, 
learning how from the simplest origin, by slow degrees 
of development, is gradually evolved this complex and 
complicated being, man. 

It takes about twenty-five years to develop a human 
being from its original simple cell to the full size and 
power of a full-grown adult. A woman has generally 
attained her height before this, more commonly by the 
age of eighteen, but the complete solidification of all of 



HOW WE GROW. II 

the structures and organs is not attained until later, and 
some regions of the skeleton are in fact not completely 
ossified until the age of thirty. 

To insure this development, Nature in this period of 
time has matured over two hundred and eight bones in 
the skeleton and more than five hundred muscles. She 
has maintained in unceasing activity an organ which is 
sending from ten to twelve pounds of blood around the 
body in less than thirty seconds, and whose energy, at 
each contraction of its muscular walls, is equivalent to 
pumping an ounce of blood over fifty feet high. 

In the interior of the body, where foods have been 
undergoing chemical and other changes to fit them for 
nourishing the tissues, the fluids necessary for their solu- 
tion have been manufactured to the amount of twenty to 
thirty pounds daily. Oxygen has been required by the 
lungs to the amount of about two pounds every day, 
and from five to six pounds of food and drink have 
been required to make this constant activity possible. 
But all of this growth has not been accomplished by 
in-taking merely. For just as a well-kept furnace not 
only consumes fuel and gives out heat, but also produces 
ashes as a sign of its activity, so in the human body the 
consumption of food and the in-taking of oxygen give 
out heat and create new structures ; but in this activity 
much waste material is also produced which must be 
constantly removed, like the ashes of the furnace, or 



12 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

the life- fire will grow dull and become even fatally 
choked. 

Some of these waste elements are eliminated through 
the lungs in the shape of vitiated air to the amount of 
seven or eight quarts per minute; some through the 
skin in the shape of water and solid substances, from 
one to two pounds daily, and in unusual exertion double 
that amount. The kidneys have carried off from three 
to five pints of fluid in twenty- four hours, much is elimi- 
nated through the intestinal canal, and every muscle and 
gland cell in the body has aided in this effort to purify 
and cleanse the interior from the waste materials which 
can only clog its machinery, and Hmit its power for body 
building. 

And so by the development of some of our original 
simple cells into higher and more special forms, and by 
the ceaseless activities of all of the members of this busy 
human laboratory, adding to its structure little by little 
and throwing away useless elements, it has become possi- 
ble for such a beautiful creation as the human form to 
be consummated. 

Perhaps it will seem that we are even now trying to 
cover up our ignorance concerning growth with many 
words about it, but this hasty generalization has perhaps 
suggested this much to us : That the law of growth 
seems to be from extreme simplicity to great complexity ; 
that with the human being this progress is not made in a 



HOW WE GROW. 13 

hurry, but that on the contrary, whereas one of the 
noblest of the lower animals, the horse, attains full 
maturity in about seven years, it takes a human being 
three or four times as long to reach even an approximate 
maturity of his power. 

We have also learned that there are two forces always 
at work in this body building, — the one constructive, 
building up and adding to the original foundation, the 
other destructive, throwing off or eliminating materials 
no longer of any use to the building; and these two 
forces must be evenly balanced to maintain the health 
and development of the body. That is, if we take in 
so many pounds of food and drink daily and so much 
air, we must also throw off from the body through the 
different channels mentioned just as many pounds and 
as much air. When this income of material is greater 
than the output the activity of the various organs is 
hindered, the body accumulates fat, certain diseases may 
be engendered, and health is sure to suffer to a greater or 
less degree. When the output much exceeds the in- 
take the body wastes away and its strength is lost, — as 
is frequently seen during fevers or other exhausting 
diseases where the patient is unable to take sufficient 
nourishment. 

The object of our endeavours to develop the body 
should evidently lie in the direction of offering it such 
conditions of life as will maintain the proper balance 



14 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

between these two processes, and some of these condi- 
tions will be discussed later on. 

And finally, I think we must have noticed, as we 
thought how growth was maintained, that one of its great 
requirements is activity ; not simply the general activity 
of the body as a whole, — the movement from place to 
place, the turning of the limbs and the action of the 
eye and lip and hand, — but that more constant and subtle 
activity of the cells themselves, which are the component 
parts of our body. 

The blood cells which are ever carrying from one 
region of the body to the other their needful supply of 
oxygen, the muscle cells which are storing up some of 
this oxygen against the day of sudden exertion or of lack 
of food, the gland cells eagerly substracting from the 
passing blood and other currents the elements they 
require for their special work, the brain cells, still more 
marvellous, which are quietly elaborating the force which 
may perchance subdue an empire or electrify a nation, 
all bear their silent but eager testimony to the fact that 
only through activity are growth and health, and so life 
and beauty, possible. 

And now, since we have seen how gradual the devel- 
opment of a human being must be, and by what elaborate 
and complex processes it is carried on. we can readily 
believe that it may easily be influenced for good or for 
ill according to the conditions of life that surround it. 



HOW WE GROW. • 15 

And this is precisely what is happening every day. There 
is, fortunately, a certain law of growth by which all 
human beings attain more or less to the standard of the 
species to which they belong. This is, of course, what 
we mean by heredity, — the tendency that we all have to 
reach a certain average height and weight and chest 
girth and strength and physical likeness to our kind. 
And this tendency is always helping us to develop, and 
by it we are predestined to be like what went before us. 
But with such an impressionable thing as a growing 
human body, with its myriads of cells, all dependent for 
existence upon light and air and food and activity, which 
they may or may not find in due proportion about them, 
there are many chances that it may be diverted from its 
straight course toward complete development. And 
these chances are represented by environment, which is 
the sum total of all the influences that make up daily 
life ; the supply of food and fresh air and sunlight, the 
influences of school-life and of dress and of exercise, 
the effect of occupation or of a life of leisure, — all have 
a tremendous effect upon growth and development, as 
facts and figures are capable of showing ; and some of 
these influences we intend to speak of somewhat in 
detail. 

Probably all of the girls who may read this book are 
liberally supplied with fresh air and nourishing food in 
their homes ; but since we are convinced that the other 



l6 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

conditions which commonly surround girls — of dress, 
school-life, and lack of proper exercise — are largely 
responsible for their unsymmetrical and undeveloped 
bodies, we shall ask them to look more closely at these 
conditions, and see whether their probable practical 
influence is likely to be for good or for ill. The outlook 
need not be depressing, for if these conditions are evil 
they are all perfectly remediable. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW ENVIRONMENT MAY INPXUENCE GROWTH. 

SINCE we are not at all responsible for having been 
born either of vigorous or of puny parentage, but, 
being here, are now mostly concerned in learning how 
we can help ourselves to better ourselves, and in properly 
estimating what effect our life conditions have upon us, 
let us dismiss all questions about the curious transmission 
of physical perfections and imperfections, as seen in the 
great fact of heredity, and look at this other great factor 
in growth, — namely, environment. From such facts as 
we have, it would seem that surroundings have an im- 
mense influence upon the physical development of 
persons all the world over. 

In the first place, since circumstances do not appear 
to have much influence upon the size of the new-born, 
— since female infants, for instance, appear to have an 
average size and weight the world over, regardless of their 
class or condition, — it would appear that some potent 
influences must have been at work to result in the enor- 
mous physical differences we see about us. 



1 8 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Practically speaking, all female infants have the aver- 
age length of about nineteen inches. But we find that 
when they have grown to girlhood the girls of different 
social classes are very far from being equal to one another 
in height; and we find, too, that these differences are 
constantly increasing the farther we get away from 
infancy. An hereditary tendency to low stature, some 
one will perhaps say. Possibly, to some extent ; but that 
this is not sufficient explanation facts like the following 
will show. 

When children who are brought up in large cities, 
where the population is very dense, are taken to the 
country where there is more space and Hght and air for 
each person, they almost invariably show a great increase 
in height, and one out of all proportion to their previous 
growth, which would seem to indicate that their previous 
surroundings of bad air, poor food, lack of exercise, and 
perhaps too much work were largely responsible for their 
slew growth. Even among adults a change of residence 
from a less favourable to a more favourable climate has 
resulted in a marked increase in height, as was noticed 
in the case of many of our recruits during the late war. 

The great social classification of rich and poor is, we 
shall see, a great physical classification as well. In the 
matter of stature alone it is estimated that the poor have 
only eighty per cent of the stature of the rich. That is, 
if the daughter of a well-to-do parent at the age of 



ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 1 9 

eighteen is five feet two inches tall, her less favoured 
sister of the poorer classes will probably be two and a 
half inches shorter. If the well-nurtured girl weighs 
one hundred and twenty pounds, her poorer neighbour at 
the same age may weigh anywhere from fifteen to twenty 
pounds less. If our Hebe boasts a chest measure of 
thirty inches, the neighbour can only show one of twenty- 
eight ; and so through all their physical proportions like 
differences show what nurture has done for one, and 
what the lack of it has subtracted from the other. 

Then there is the influence that occupation has in 
favouring or retarding growth. We see the effect of this 
by comparing children of the same class and surroundings, 
one of whom works in a factory every day, standing on 
his feet, the other who goes to school, or who follows 
other trades not compelling the standing position. 

The factory child, working against gravity all the time, 
will be found two to three inches shorter than his mate 
who is differently occupied, although their food <»id 
housing are practically the same. 

Unfortunately, fewer facts have been accumulated 
about girls than about boys as regards the effect of occu- 
pation, exercise, town or country life upon their develop- 
ment ; but since the principle involved is the same for 
both, we can accept the evidence for one as evidence for 
the other, so I shall make no apology for showing in the 
following table (page 21), by some help from Roberts's 



20 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Statistics, how the height of English boys of the same 
age may be diminished or increased in direct proportion 
to their surroundings. 

It is something Hke this : At the top of the scale, as 
we see, best developed of all, are the sons of the profes- 
sional men, — the boys who go to Eton and Rugby and 
Harrow, well-housed, well-fed, and who above all, after 
the fashion of the best English boys' schools, have 
hours of healthy sport in the open air. These boys, we 
see, are fifty- five inches (four feet seven inches) tall. 
Next come the boys from the first and second " Middle- 
class Schools," kept in town, where sports are fewer, boys 
less out of doors, and living in less pure air. Then we 
have the children of agricultural labourers, only fairly 
fed, and when not in poorly kept schools probably on 
their feet working ; these are two inches shorter already 
than the best-nurtured boy. 

Then there are the children of artisans, town dwellers, 
constantly employed, breathing impure air, and taking no 
exercise worth mentioning. Next come the factory 
children who work in the country, and then those who 
work in town. No sports, no out-of-doors, always on 
their feet ; but you see even here that the country-bred 
factory boy is ahead of the more confined town lad. 
And last, and shortest of all, as they have been least 
favoured by circumstances, come the children of asylums, 
who are generally orphans, with no physical nurture, little 



ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 21 

exercise, and poor food both before and during their 
asylum life. 

These boys are all between the ages of eleven and 
twelve years ; and grading them according to their height, 
we shall see how this is steadily lessened in direct pro- 
portion to their physical surroundings and habits of life. 

Influence of Physical Nurture upon Height, 

BOYS. 

Country life, out-door 
sports, plenty exercise _55 inches. 

Town schools, fewer sports .. J 54 
Poorer grade of schools, fewer 

sports, poorer air 

Agricultural labourers, poor schools : 

country 




Artisans, harder work : town I 5^-5 



i2 



Factory workers : country. 

Factory workers : towns 

Military Asylums ; orphans (?), early care neglected. 
Industrial schools ; orphans (?), early care neglected. 



io_ 



So we see that a difference of five inches may exist 
between two boys who were probably born of the same 
height, one of whom was favoured with healthful sur- 
roundings, the other deprived of these conditions of 
growth. 

The observations among girls, as we have already men- 
tioned, being less numerous, the diagram is less striking ; 



22 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

but because this little book is for girls, we shall add 
another pair of stairs which will give some results ob- 
tained among English girls of different social classes, and 
therefore widely differing physical advantages. 

Like the boys, the first class represents the children 
of professional men, who live in the same comfort, and 
with probably about the same physical advantages as to 
air, exercise, food, and the absence of fatiguing work as 
do the girls who will read these pages. These girls are 
ten years of age, and the scale descends in the follow- 
ing way : — 

Influence of Physical Nurture upon Height, 
GIRLS. 
Best physical conditions : town and country 53-4 inches. 

Less favourable conditions : town LiL4 

Labouring class : country I 5Q-4 

Harder worked, more confined to house ; town I 48< 

Industrial schools, most unfavourable I 477 

At the age of fifteen a similar pair of stairs shows the 
most favoured girl to be about five feet three inches tall 
(62.9 inches), while the girl who is on the lowest stair, 
an inmate of the Industrial schools, is, at the same age, 
seven inches shorter, or only 55.5 inches high ! 

In weight our topmost girl of fifteen years tips the 
scales at about one hundred and seven pounds, while the 
girl who has never had enough fresh air or vigorous 



ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 23 

exercise, and probably not a very ample diet withal, is 
nearly forty pounds lighter ! 

These and similar figures are only illustrative of facts 
concerning which we have daily evidence ; for in a gen- 
eral way we all understand that their surroundings and 
physical education must make a difference to a nation, 
or to a family, in proportion to their greater or less 
healthfulness. 

Probably none of my readers will ever work in fac- 
tories, and doubtless all of them have liberal suppUes of 
food, and fresh air in greater or less proportion, but a 
consideration of these few figures will, I think, tend to 
show them how seriously the external conditions and 
habits of life may interfere with symmetrical growth ; and 
they will therefore not be unprepared to have me claim 
that certain social and other conditions of life which do 
concern them may have a most important influence upon 
the development of a girl's physique. 

There are three distinct conditions in the life of the 
average young woman which are certainly capable of 
seriously retarding her physical development, as they now 
exist, and these concern her habits of dress, habits of 
school-Ufe, and habit of {noi) taking exercise. And 
these three conditions, as they now exist, we shall look 
at a little more carefully in detail. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS ON PHYSICAL 
DEVELOPMENT. 

IF we observe the outlines of any accredited statue of 
a beautiful woman we shall be struck with several 
interesting points of difference between them and those 
of the modern girl in modem attire. If we take the 
anterior line from the neck to the centre of the abdo- 
men, we shall find that in our statue it presents two very 
gentle curves. The first, from the base of the neck 
downward, is a gradually swelling curve over the chest 
until it reaches a point just below the bust ; then we see 
that the line becomes almost straight for a few inches 
until it reaches the region of the waist, when it once 
more curves gently outward and downward over the 
abdomen. In fact, the contour is such that the actual 
depths of the two regions, — namely, those of the chest and 
the abdomen, — are nearly the same, measured from be- 
fore backward. The same figure gives us a similarly soft 
curve from under the arm outward and downward over 
the hip ; and we notice how almost imperceptible is the 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 2$ 

point at which these swelling curves begin and end, with 
no suggestion of sudden transition or sharpness. 

These outlines are characteristic of the figures of all 
the beautiful women that art has given us in every age ; 
and from them we see that in the ideal beauty women 
had no sharply defined waist (which is really a break in 
the curve), but only a continuous and beautiful curve in 
that region, and no suggestion of what women sometimes 
now complain of, — an ^^ abdominous " figure, — but only 
a gently swelling outline, whose beginning and end were 
difficult to find. Evidently the same ideal of nature is 
held in the modern art world, for the artists* models tell 
the same story. ^' Have you a small waist? ** (that is, a 
sharply defined curve) an artist's model was asked by 
one in search of a natural figure. *' No,'* she replied, 
quickly ; ^^ if I had, the artists would not employ me." 

Now, it is easy to see that our modern girl is not like 
the accredited statue in one or two important particulars. 
First, her upper chest curve is somewhat more accentu- 
ated, while the region below the bust, instead of being 
either a straight line for a little distance or even a gentle 
curve outward, is, on the contrary, often deeply indented, 
forming an actual concavity in the outline at this point, 
which we call the waist. At all events, there is almost 
always a sharp arrest in the gradual slope outward which 
challenges attention, the abdominal curve taking a sud- 
den leap forward, just below this point, making, even in 



26 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

young women, what may be properly termed an abdomi- 
nous figure. If she is dressed, — the modern model, — 
these outlines result in the high bust, the stiff indented 
waist, whose concavity contrasting with the swelling curve 
below gives the conventional hour-glass figure. 

It can be shown that these differences between the 
modern and the classic, as well as between the modern 
and the uncivilized woman, are entirely the result of the 
constrictions of modern dress. No Greek or Roman 
maiden possessed this curious outline, nor do we ever see 
a well-formed Indian or gypsy woman with an hour-glass 
figure. It has been reserved for modern civilization to 
invent the brace known as the corset, and to its slow 
compression women can now boast a figure like which 
there is nothing in the world of nature or of art. 

One of the first innovations in this line of tight dress- 
ing was the linen band worn by ancient Greek and other 
women for the purpose of supporting the bust, but never 
with the intention of contracting or changing the figure. 
It is probable, however, that to this simple and legitimate 
fashion we owe, by slow degrees, the present one of sup- 
plying a bust supporter, a waist constrictor, and a general 
body depressor in the one article known as the corset. 
For as the human body is more than a mere outline, 
it goes without saying that any systematic compression of 
its anatomy must affect, not only its contour but also the 
structures and organs compressed. And briefly, these 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 2^ 

are some of the grave charges that we bring against the 
modern corset, or against any system of compression 
analogous to it : — 

First, it changes the shape of the chest, by compress- 
ing the lower and more movable ribs, and exalting the 
action of the upper chest region. It restricts the free 
action of the heart and of the lower portions of the 
lungs. It curtails the freedom of the diaphragm, the 
most important muscle of respiration. It weakens by 
its pressure all of the muscles which it constricts, — not- 
ably the abdominal muscles, whose vigour and tone are 
specially desirable in women, — while it offers the spinal 
muscles an artificial support, instead of the cultivation 
of their natural functions of holding the spine erect. 

It tends to displace abdominal organs, — notably the 
liver, which is directly within the limits of its seizure, 
and which is pushed by this compression downward 
into the pelvic region, where it in turn exerts its pressure 
upon the pelvic organs. This pressure from above, 
alUed to the fact that the diaphragm, whose activity 
greatly assists the pelvic circulation, is seriously crippled 
by compression, makes tight clothing, with its associated 
muscular weakness, largely responsible for many of the 
pelvic complaints which disable women. 

The strength of all muscles depends upon their action 
in the line of their function, and for such action they 
must be free. Now, the corset makes action unnecessary 



28 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

and freedom impossible, because it says to the waist 
muscles and the back and abdominal muscles, '* Come, I 
will support you; lean on me. Your arms must grow 
strong with use, your legs become vigorous with action, 
it is true ; but make no exertion with the muscles of your 
trunk, for I will support them by this splint." And so 
the growing girl who was just learning the enjoyment of 
her body, and beginning to develop its usefulness, is 
encased in whale-bones and splints ; and after a year or 
two of artificial support she says very truly that she 
cannot hold herself up without it. 

It will perhaps be easier to understand the influence 
of corset pressure by referring to the illustration (Fig. i), 
which represents the trunk of the body and the regions 
most affected by tight dressing. We see here the 
bony cage called the thorax, formed by the ribs, breast- 
bone, and spine, which contains the heart and lungs. 
These twelve pairs of slender bones are all attached 
behind to the spine, but in front they are pieced out with 
cartilage, by means of which most of them are attached 
to the breast- bone, directly, or indirectly, varying with 
their position. The lower ribs, it will be seen, are more 
indirectly and obliquely connected with the breast-bone 
in this manner, while the last three are not attached in 
front at all, but float loosely in the abdominal cavity. 
It is evident from this arrangement, and it can also be 
demonstrated by experiment, that the lower part of the 



LOWER BORDER LUNGS 
& REGION OF OlAPHRACn 



REG/ON OF LIVER 




REGION OF STOrVkC^ 



PELV/C ORGANS'^ 



Fig. I. Showing the natural and the artificial 

OUTLINES OF THE TRUNK. 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 29 

chest and these floating ribs are easily compressed. 
The lowest ribs are in fact just at the waist- line, 
where in all tightly dressed women they are continually 
squeezed together; so that if they could be seen, they 
would be found nearly meeting in the centre of the 
body, instead of showing the natural wide separation 
indicated in the plate. 

Below the chest walls the plate shows the flaring 
hip-bones, which form the basin called the pelvis, in 
which are deeply located the uterus, ovaries, bladder, 
etc. The outer line gives the actual shape of an un- 
restricted body, with its gradual and gentle curves. 
The inner and heavier line gives the familiar shape 
of a tightly- dressed woman, and has been drawn to in- 
dicate the line of pressure of a tight corset, and the 
regions which are most injured by its seizure. It will 
be seen that in order to produce a small waist, — that is, 
a marked indentation of the figure, — the corset begins 
to pull in the ribs at about the lower third of the lung 
region, and that this compression is increased, as shown 
by the incurving line, until it cuts sharply across the 
lower ribs, clearly showing how these, in an artificial 
waist, must be squeezed into the center of the body, 
pressing with them the organs which are within their 
protection. 

Just at this point of waist constriction is the great 
muscle of respiration, the diaphragm, which forms the 



30 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 



partition between the chest and the abdominal organs ; 
and because it is such an important organ, and withal 
so Httle understood and so much abused, we shall pay 
it a little attention just here. 

The name diaphragm means a dividing wall, and it 
is so called because it cuts off the chest from the ab- 
dominal cavity. The diaphragm indeed forms the floor 




Fig. 2. The Diaphragm. 

of the chest, and the roof of the abdominal cavity. By 
referring to the illustration (Fig. 2), which is copied 
from Kitchen, it will be seen to be irregularly dome- 
like in shape, some of its fibres also running downward 
and backward into flattened tail-like ends, which are 
attached to the spine. The sides are attached to the 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 3 1 

ribs, while in front its deeply jagged edges fit into similar 
digitations in the muscles that close the abdominal cavity. 
In structure it is part muscle and part tendon, and it 
is so strong that it is estimated that in certain expul- 
sive efforts it exerts a pressure upon the abdominal 
contents equal to over twenty pounds to the square inch. 
Underneath its two convex surfaces we find the liver 
and the stomach packed away with the spleen, kidneys, 
and other digestive organs, the diaphragm fitting down 
over them almost like a cap ; and from their intimate 
relation it will readily be understood how the move- 
ments of this close-fitting cover must influence these 
and adjacent organs. There are three openings in the 
diaphragm, two of which permit the passage of blood- 
vessels from the heart into the abdomen and beyond, 
while the other transmits the oesophagus as it passes 
into the stomach. 

Now, the great office of the diaphragm is to pump 
air into the chest ; it forms the motive power by which 
not only breathing but all vocalization, — speech, song, 
coughing, and laughing, — are possible. Other muscles 
are aids to respiration ; but they could all be spared be- 
fore the diaphragm, which is the only muscle capable of 
carrying on abdominal breathing unaided. This alone 
suggests its importance, and the necessity of giving it 
ample room for its activity. 

The diaphragm works something like a piston. In 



32 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

inspiration its two dome- like surfaces contract, becom- 
ing flattened out, and so descending somewhat, and 
pushing downward the abdominal organs they enlarge 
the chest cavity vertically, while the ribs, at the same 
time moving outward, enlarge it laterally. This reces- 
sion of the chest walls having formed a vacuum, air 
rushes in to fill the space, and so we have inspiration. 

In expiration the diaphragm returns to its original 
position and dome-like shape, partly by its own elas- 
ticity, and partly by the recoil of the abdominal organs 
which push it up as they regain their own position once 
more. 

This, then, is the first great function of the diaphragm, 
and it is apparent how it must be limited in its useful- 
ness if it is squeezed into a smaller space than nature 
provided for it. 

• The illustration of the diaphragm is intentionally 
made larger than it normally is in relation to the chest, 
so that its structure may be more clearly apparent. It 
is drawn as it would be in a state of expiration, when 
it has been relaxed somewhat. In inspiration these 
dome-like surfaces become flattened. 

It can be imagined how the line that has been drawn 
to represent the compression of the ribs must also cut 
across the curved borders of these domes, compressing 
the organ, and restricting it in its ability to expand 
properly. We find by experiment that tight clothing, 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 33 

be it corset, bands, or waists, does seriously affect its 
oscillations, and interfere with the quantity of air that can 
be taken into the lungs at any given time. If the dia- 
phragm is limited in its movements, the chest is not 
properly enlarged at each inspiration, and there is con- 
sequently no opportunity for the lungs to expand fully 
in their lower portions. It will be noticed that about 
one third of the lungs lie below the point of beginning 
corset pressure, so that with tight corsets this amount of 
lung substance must be more or less useless, depending 
upon the degree of compression. The reason that 
women support this amount of lung compression as well 
as they do, is because the upper two thirds of the chest 
assumes extra work to compensate for the deficiency of 
the unused portion, which also explains why the upper 
chest region moves more freely in women than it does 
in man. 

It has been supposed, indeed, to be the normal type of 
female breathing to use the upper part of the chest to 
the practical exclusion of the lower portion; and this 
type of breathing has been called clavicular, because 
it is carried on by that portion of the chest in the 
region of the clavicle or collar bone, while the male 
type, in which there is more action of the diaphragm 
and less of the upper chest, is called diaphragmatic. 
But a sufficient number of experiments by different ob- 
servers have satisfied the writer that this so-called fe- 

3 



34 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

male type of breathing is not the intention of nature, but 
is the result of corset or other tight dressing, which pre- 
vents the natural use and development of the diaphragm. 
It is found that little girls who have never worn corsets 
breathe with the lower part of the lungs, and use their 
diaphragm as fully as do boys of the same age. We find 
too that with civilized women who have never worn cor- 
sets the diaphragmatic breathing is the type rather than 
the clavicular, while savage, Chinese, and gypsy women, 
who are guiltless of any waist constriction, show diaphrag- 
matic breathing equally with the men of their tribes. 

It has also been shown by Dr. Kellogg that while a 
woman who wears a corset does exhibit this clavicular 
type of breathing, making little use of her diaphragm, 
the same woman when she has dispensed with her cor- 
set learns gradually to practise diaphragmatic breathing 
with nearly the same freedom as a man ; and finally, to 
demonstrate how a constricted waist must affect the dia- 
phragm of any being, Kellogg shows that the breathing 
of a man in a corset is almost precisely like that of a 
corseted woman, — that is, of the clavicular type. 

To ascertain in figures how much ordinarily tight 
clothing interferes with lung expansion and freedom of 
the diaphragm, the writer induced ten young ladies to 
allow themselves to be measured about the chest both 
with and without a corset or waist, and noted the results. 
The girth was taken about the ninth rib, or just below 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 35 

the lower portion of the lungs, and where the diaphrag- 
matic action is most visible. The average girth at this 
point was about 27.50 inches over a gauze shirt. One 
half of the girls generally wore corsets, the other five 
wore ^^ reformed waists.'* These being put on, the same 
measurement was again taken over the corset or waist, 
when it was found to be from half an inch to an inch 
and a half smaller than without any clothing, in the case 
of the corseted girls ; in those with the waists it was 
generally larger by one or more inches. 

The chest expansion of all being taken at the same 
level without corsets, was found to amount to two and 
three inches ; taken with the corset on, it averaged only 
three-quarters of an inch. One girl, who wore a low 
riding-corset however, expanded one and one half inches. 
Those who wore the reformed waists could expand from 
one and one half to two and one half inches. These 
figures point their own moral, and make comment need- 
less. It is idle to hope for a perfect physique or fine 
development of the body when it is denied its first great 
right of fresh air and freedom ; and to demand the amount 
of physical activity requisite for development of girls 
whose organs are strapped in, and whose supply of oxy- 
gen is curtailed by many inches, is cruelty. 

Either physical development or tight clothing must 
go. But the effect of waist constriction is farther reach- 
ing than the lungs. The corset and all tight clothing 



36 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

work their ill eifects upon the abdominal and pelvic 
organs in quite as serious a manner. 

There is, indeed, as we have seen, some compensation 
for restriction about the lower chest region in the exag- 
gerated activity of the upper chest in women, but for the 
displacement and injuries to the abdominal and pelvic 
organs that occur from the same compression there can 
be no compensation. 

The diaphragm has a most important influence upon 
these lower organs, because its office is not only to pump 
air into the lungs, but also to pump blood into the heart. 
For when the vacuum is created in the chest by inspira- 
tion, the blood from the abdominal and pelvic veins is 
sucked upward by aspiration into the chest, its naturally 
slow course being in that way accelerated and encouraged 
by every breath we draw. The fuller the inspiration the 
larger the vacuum formed in the chest, and the more 
profound the effect upon the circulation of the liver and 
stomach, the uterus, and all adjacent organs. 

In estimating the value of deep inspiration upon the pel- 
vic circulation one more fact should be noticed, — namely, 
that nature has not provided the same helps to the return 
circulation in the pelvis that are found elsewhere in the 
body. The blood in the lower extremities in returning 
to the heart is for the most part flowing against gravity ; 
and in order to assist its upward course the veins are 
generally provided with tiny valves, which, like locks in 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 3/ 

a canal, dam it up for a second's time that it may gain 
greater force and propelling power later. But the pelvic 
organs in women are not provided with these helps to 
circulation, so that with this lack, and with the fact that 
the erect position tends rather to promote stagnation of 
blood in these regions, there would seem to be reason 
why pelvic congestions might easily occur unless every 
help of nature's providing is used to prevent them. The 
relaxed abdominal and pelvic muscles of women tend to 
promote this congestion also, — partly because excess of 
blood may accumulate in such inactive muscles, and 
partly because the relaxed muscular fibres permit dis- 
placements of the pelvic organs. 

All of this interference with the pelvic circulation 
greatly increases the chances of displacement which 
tight and heavy clothing inaugurates. 

The liver is probably the first organ to suffer from 
corset pressure. Normally, this organ does not reach 
below the border of the ribs ; but under corset constric- 
tion it is pushed inward and downward, — sometimes so 
compressed that the markings of the ribs are found upon 
its surface, — and displaced from one to three inches be- 
low its normal position. The pressure of so heavy an 
organ in turn displaces and pushes away the other 
contents of the abdominal cavity, so there is a con- 
stant downward pressure maintained upon all of these 
structures. 



38 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Now, the uterus, which in turn receives this pressure, 
is held in position by Hgaments which act as mooring 
ropes to hold it in place. These are formed of mus- 
cular and other fibres, which are capable of stretching 
under pressure ; and this stretching actually occurs when 
waist constriction is present, so that the ligaments no 
longer sustain the organ in its normal position. 

In fact, the evils of the corset or other waist con- 
striction appear to the writer to be as serious in their 
effects upon pelvic health as upon the chest region. 
Their influence is always recognized by intelligent phy« 
sicians who are called upon to remedy these pelvic 
displacements, congestions, and allied difficulties, the 
lines of preventive and curative treatment always includ- 
ing rules for such dress as shall permit the free oscilla- 
tions of the diaphragm as well as for exercises which shall 
cultivate the vigour and healthy tone of the abdominal 
and pelvic muscles and uterine supports. 

Nothing has been said regarding the weight of clothing, 
because the apphcation of the principles of freedom and 
non- constriction are so obviously applicable to excess 
of weight as to need no comment. Neither have the 
discomforts of tight dressing been enlarged upon, because 
they too are matters of common experience to most 
corset wearers, many of whom have been frank enough 
to confess to the writer that they were never comfort- 
able in corsets and did not suppose any woman could 



THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. . 39 

be, sadly bearing their yoke as part of their debt to 
civilization. 

The limitation that corsets put upon the natural and 
graceful movements of the body, most of which depend 
upon the freedom of the spine and the waist muscles (as 
in bowing and bending, and all the side and rotating 
movements of the trunk) , is certainly obvious enough to 
others, if not always to their wearer. 

Some' one with more force than elegance remarks, 
^^ Woman in stays cannot stoop, she must squat." The 
writer heard an unintentional commentary upon this text 
recently by one woman who half enviously said to an- 
other, who bent quickly and gracefully to lift an article 
from the floor, " You must wear a very loose corset." ^^ I 
do not wear any," was the quiet rejoinder of the well 
dressed friend, who preferred a trifling addition to her 
waist to the awkward immobilization she had found in 
the conventional corset. 

Indeed, to aspire to grace and flexibility and a fine de- 
velopment of the trunk, and still to cling to a tight corset, 
is like requiring activity in a bandaged arm, or looking 
for the sensitive and vital movements of life in a wooden 
leg. 

Freedom, space, activity, — these are the necessary en- 
vironments of the body if we would attain its fullest and 
most charming development. Fortunately, these are 
possible, and elegance is possible, by the use of the 



40 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

well fitted waists, which are to be found in every city 
and town. The comfort and pliability of these waists 
have recommended them to hundreds of corset-lovers 
all over the country; and with them the introduction 
of light and well- supported other clothing, details for 
which can be learned in most of the same shops, offers 
in this respect the girl who honestly desires health, grace, 
and freedom to use her body, a hopeful and attractive 
future. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL ON PHYSICAL 
DEVELOPMENT. 

FULLY one half of every girPs waking hours are 
spent either at school or in study preparing for 
it, and so, approximately under the same conditions. If 
we admit a five-hour daily session, or the ordinary one 
from nine until two o'clock, we see by a little multiplying 
that a girl between the ages of nine and eighteen spends 
nine thousand hours in the schoolroom, adding a thou- 
sand more for each year after eighteen that she goes to 
school. It must be quite evident to any thoughtful person 
that the influence of such an amount of time for good 
or for evil upon the physical part of this girPs organism 
cannot be slight ; and this is the more certain because 
these school influences are quite unvarying in their char- 
acter, the physical advantages and disadvantages being 
fairly balanced in most schools, omitting the poorest 
grade, and at all periods, until perhaps the closing year 
or two of school-Hfe, when the sifting of scholars brings 



42 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

more space and air to the older classes, and sometimes a 
relaxation in discipline calls for less immobility. 

Now, the text of this chapter will be based upon the 
conviction that school-life is responsible for much of 
the ill health of young girls (the case is practically the 
same for boys, only we are not here considering their 
needs), and for many of their physical deficiencies, 
asymmetries, and lesser deformities. 

If those conditions of school-hfe which retard phys- 
ical development were unavoidable evils, and indispen- 
sable to brain- training, it is probable that they would 
not be discussed here, because the necessity and value 
of mental training is so absolute, from every point of 
view, that one might feel called upon to sacrifice some 
small degree of physical development, if that were ne- 
cessary, in order to attain it. As a matter of fact, most 
persons who lead a literary or other sedentary life are 
obliged to make this sacrifice ; but most of the unfa- 
vourable conditions of school-life are so obviously avoid- 
able, and the evils which result are so remediable (some 
of them being quite in the hands of the girls themselves, 
to correct or set aside) that they fairly come within the 
province of our subject. 

It is quite true that the most crying evil of school-life, 
— namely, the impure air of schoolrooms, and their lack 
of ventilation, is not one that is within the province of 
the girls themselves to correct, although they could some- 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 43 

times effect something in that direction if they were 
persuaded of the necessity of plenty of fresh air, both 
for physical and mental uses. 

It was long ago established by scientists who have 
made studies of the elements of fresh air and of air that 
has once been breathed by human beings, that this re- 
breathed air is totally unfit for their use again. Observa- 
tions upon the health of people whose ration of fresh air 
is small daily, show that re-breathed air has a poisonous 
effect upon them, — partly, of course, from its possessing 
certain gaseous and other elements, which represent the 
waste materials of the body thrown off by the lungs, and 
therefore never intended to be re-absorbed by the lungs 
in that same condition ; partly, in a negative sense, 
because such air passing through the lungs has lost much 
of the oxygen which human beings require for growth 
and health ; and partly because such " close " air is more 
liable to retain any germs of disease that may have been 
carried to it, and which would be dissipated by the 
admission of fresh currents of air. 

Some of the invariable results that follow from breath- 
ing impure air are headaches, anemia, or an impover- 
ished condition of the blood, in which the blood cells 
lack proper supply of oxygen, as well as iron and other 
elements, and dyspepsia, with the various discomforts 
and low state of strength that follow in the train of 
these disorders. Now, it is a noteworthy fact that 



44 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

these and other affections, so common among school- 
girls, are rare under the age of eight or nine years. 
Children under that age rarely complain of headache, 
unless on the verge of illness ; but after her school-days 
begin, dyspepsia, headaches, and anemia are some of the 
commonest affections that call for the attention of the 
family doctor, and by him are too often attributed to 
overstudy and mental strain. 

We believe school-life to be largely responsible for these 
and kindred disorders of school-girls, — not, however, 
because their brains are overtaxed, but rather because 
the body is under-trained, and especially because it is 
robbed of its rightful supply of fresh air by confinement 
in ill-ventilated, or oftener not at all ventilated rooms. 

There is a certain amount of space known as cubic 
space which every person requires in order to secure not 
only the first supply of pure air, but in order to obtain 
renewals of this air often enough to keep it pure without 
draughts. There is also a certain amount of fresh air 
that must come into this space every hour, so much for 
every person according to the age. 

School- children require a cubic space of from two 
hundred and fifty to six hundred cubic feet per capita, 
depending upon their age; and the ventilation of the 
schoolroom should be such as to provide fifteen hundred 
cubic feet of fresh air every hour, per capita, and to 
entirely change the air of an occupied room at least 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 45 

three times an hour, in order to maintain the proper 
standard of purity, — a room that is over-crowded need- 
ing even more frequent changes than this. 

It is a fair statement that these conditions are never 
supphed in schoolrooms ; for it is a startUng fact that, 
notwithstanding these requirements of hygiene are known 
to be true, and that they are expressed with mathemati- 
cal exactness in text-books and many popular treatises 
on the subject, our school-girls, whose parents are gen- 
erally wiUing and able to supply them with the best 
conditions of Ufe, do not actually receive as adequate 
an allowance of fresh air daily as do the criminals and 
lunatics in our best State institutions. 

There are few schools indeed in this country that can 
offer any such proportion of fresh air per pupil as is 
oifered by the most modern and best equipped of these 
charitable and penal institutions, which are for the sole 
purpose of sheltering lives that are more or less worthless 
to the State, while in our schoolrooms are being trained 
what we call the flower of our land ; yet humanita- 
rian principles have in many cases provided for these 
paupers and criminals the most approved and scientific 
system of ventilation, while these darlings of the pros- 
perous go on poisoning their bodies and dulling their 
brains by breathing and rebreathing the scanty allowance 
of air that they find in the majority of schoolrooms. 

This evil can only be remedied by the firmness and 



46 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

intelligent co-operation of parents, who should refuse to 
send their children where the requisite provisions for ven- 
tilation do not exist, and through the intervention of 
Boards of Health, who should pass laws forbidding the 
use of rooms for school purposes which do not permit 
of proper ventilation, and which shall also limit the 
number of pupils to be allowed in rooms of given di- 
mensions. But while it is true that parents and teachers 
and Boards of Health are the responsible persons in this 
matter, and that we must look to their intelligence and 
conscience to make laws that will remedy this evil, it is 
also true that in many ways the girls can often help 
themselves for the time being. 

This can be done by assisting the ventilation of the 
room by opening windows and doors for even a few 
seconds or minutes, during changes between classes, and 
also by the pupils withdrawing from the main room dur- 
ing intermissions and moving about the building, the 
yard, or if possible out of doors, to gain for themselves a 
breath of air, as well as the desirable exercise. 

One or two intelligent and sensible girls, by means 
well known to girls of tact and determination, can create 
among their fellows what is evidently a necessity, a 
public sentiment in fevour of fresh air, — a sentiment 
which would realize that headaches and drowsiness and 
" nervousness " could often be dismissed by the opening 
of a schoolroom window or a brisk promenade in pure 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 47 

air during recess, and that over-crowding and not over 
study is the cause of their ills. Some of the influences 
of school- Hfe which are most unfavourable to physical de- 
velopment are however of a different nature, and are 
generally quite within the province of the school-girl to 
remedy. These are the influences of faulty positions 
and temporary distortions of the body seen at the school- 
desk, in writing or drawing or studying, sometimes in 
standing and sitting as well. These temporary distor- 
tions might be of small importance if only assumed for 
the moment ; but where they constitute what we may 
almost call the normal pose of a school-girl, and where 
we realize that they are assumed by a most impression- 
able and easily moulded organism day after day and year 
after year for nine or ten years, it is impossible to doubt 
that they have a seriously unfavourable effect upon all of 
the structures included in the attitude. 

The most important regions which, as we shall see, are 
liable to be retarded or distorted in their development 
by these school habits are the chest, or thorax, and the 
spinal column, — school attitudes tending to induce a flat- 
tened chest and a spine which is deviated either to the 
right or to the left of the vertical line, depending upon 
the direction of the attitude most often assumed. A 
familiar attitude often taken by girls at the school-desk 
is illlustrated by the accompanying photograph (Fig. 3) 
of a girl who was asked to assume the position most 



48 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

common with her at school, upon which she dropped at 
once into the pose here represented. Undesirable as 
this is, it is actually not as distorted as the attitudes 
we not infrequently find school-girls assuming. 

It will be evident that such a pose is not only unbeau- 
tiful, but may be positively deforming. We see how the 
shoulders are raised and drawn forward, so that the chest 
must be contracted and flattened, as can easily be de- 
monstrated by assuming the position. Free respiration is 
impeded, partly because the diaphragm, which is the 
principal muscle of respiration, is cramped by this posi- 
tion, so that its free movements are limited ; and the 
stomach and other organs of digestion are in like fashion 
squeezed together, and their circulation doubtless inter- 
fered with, — a matter of some moment after the hasty 
meals which generally precede the school-session. But 
after its effect in flattening the chest, perhaps its most 
apparent influence is upon the spinal column, in which 
all one-sided positions that are frequently assumed have 
the tendency to induce a lateral curvature. 

In the case of our model it will be seen that this one- 
sided attitude, in which she is resting more upon the 
right than the left side, curves the spine toward the 
right in the upper or dorsal region, while there is a slight 
compensatory curve in the lumbar region. The right 
shoulder is somewhat elevated, and the right side of the 
chest becomes more prominent than the left, while the 




Fig. 3. The habitual attitude of a school-girl at 

HER DESK. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 49 

left side is made concave, and the left hip is thrown 
out and becomes more prominent than the right. These 
two defects — hollow chests and crooked spines — are in 
fact very common among school-girls ; and like some of 
the diseases of children, they become vastly more com- 
mon after the school-age than before. It is compara- 
tively rare to find a child under seven or eight years 
of age with a lateral curvature of the spine, but between 
the ages of ten and eighteen these curvatures become 
extremely frequent. Out of several hundred young 
women and school children examined by the writer, 
from twenty-five to thirty per cent showed some degree 
of spinal curvature, varying all the way from an insignifi- 
cant deviation easily recovered from by proper care, to a 
pronounced and permanent distortion. Almost all of 
those who were interrogated about their school habits 
acknowledged their school positions to be similar to 
or even more distorted than that of Fig. 3. Such posi- 
tions are perhaps oftener taken in writing than at 
other times, although they are chronic in many cases ; 
out of two hundred children whose attitudes in writing 
were examined by Schenck of Berlin, one hundred and 
sixty were found seated in a position to induce a curva- 
ture of the spine. 

It must be understood that lateral curvature of the 
spine is not a disease, but a distortion, due to the lateral 
deviation of the spinal vertebrae from their normal verti- 

4 



50 



PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 



cal axis, with the results (varying with the extent of the 
deviation) that must follow when this twisted structure 
IS the central supporting column of the body and has 
many important relations to other struc- 
tures. 

It is upon the erectness, suppleness, 
and strength of the spinal column that 
most of the power and grace of the body 
depend ; for it is impossible to imagine 
either one or the other of these quaUties 
in a weak or distorted spine. The way 
in which these qualities are favoured by 
the structure of the spine we shall better 
understand if we glance at the illustra- 
tion (Fig. 4), which represents a side 
view of the spinal column. 

It will be seen from this view that the 
spine normally exhibits four curvatures, 
but all from before backward, not from 
side to side. One, in the neck, forward ; 
one backward at the shoulders ; the third 

forward again at the waist, or lumbar 
Fig. 4. — Side view 
of the normal region : and the fourth, which is in the 

Spinal Column. 

pelvis, sharply backward again. The ob- 
ject of these curvatures is to give a springiness to the 
spine which it would not exhibit if it were built like a 
straight rod ; and this springiness is still further encour- 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 51 

aged, as we shall see, by another provision. The entire 
column is composed of twenty-four separate stout bony 
bodies, which are rounded in front, and which terminate 
behind in spines, or projections (from which the column 
gains its name), which may be distinctly felt all the way 
down the back, and which, in a normal spine, are in a 
perfectly vertical line from neck to hips. 

It will also be noticed that each of these vertebrae is 
cut off from its neighbour by a certain space, differing in 
size in the different localities. These spaces are filled 
by elastic cushions or pads of cartilaginous material, 
which, being quite compressible, aid in giving to the 
spine its elasticity, and which also add to the effect of 
the spinal curves in preventing the too severe transmis- 
sion of a shock to the spinal column from a fall or other 
sudden jar. 

The compressibility of these cushions is shown by the 
fact that we are taller early in the morning than at night, 
because the night^s rest has permitted the cushions to 
regain the elasticity of which the body's weight had de- 
prived them during the day. In severe lateral curvatures 
these elastic disks are compressed and thinned on the 
side of greatest bending and pressure, some of the verte- 
brae also being changed in shape, showing how perma- 
nently maintained distortions, even when they are not 
the result of disease, cause permanent internal changes 
which coincide with the external deformity. 



52 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

On the sides of the vertebrae we may notice small 
half-moon depressions. Each of these, with that of its 
fellow above, forms a pit which receives the end of the 
rib, which is firmly held there by ligaments. A better 
idea of the attachment of the ribs may be obtained from 
the illustration of the thorax, given in the chapter on 
Dress. 

All of the vertebrae are bound together by shorter or 
longer ligaments, which hold it strongly, but which per- 
mit considerable motion between the different bones; 
and the whole is connected and moved by longer or 
shorter bands of muscles, forming a structure wonder- 
fully strong, pliable, and capable of most graceful and 
sinuous movements. These muscles and ligaments, being 
precisely alike on both sides, are intended to bear equally 
the strain of supporting the body ; but when one-sided 
positions are habitually assumed, the muscles and liga- 
ments which are constantly exercised upon that side 
tend to grow stronger and larger than their fellows, and 
these in turn will weaken and even waste away from 
disuse, so that such one-sidedness tends to perpetuate 
itself even when the position is changed, and a school 
habit, at first only nonchalently assumed, tends from 
natural causes to settle into a permanent attitude. 

From what we know also of the relation of the ribs to 
the spine, we can see that anything that deviates these 
vertebrae sidewise or rotates them on their axes must 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. S3 

affect the ribs which are fastened to them. Now, as the 
ribs form the thorax in which are placed the heart and 
lungs, any influence which deforms or changes this cage 
may interfere with the functions of the organs it con- 
tains. Such an interference actually occurs in the more 
serious cases of curvature, producing shortness of breath, 
with heart and other functional disturbances. It is 
partly these considerations, which fortunately do not 
obtain in many cases, but which are in severe cases quite 
prominent, over and above those of its effect upon the 
symmetry of the body which gives special importance to 
this affection, and to any means for its prevention. 

It should not be supposed that school-life is to be held 
responsible for the initiation of this affection ; but there 
can be no doubt that to many girls its unfavourable influ- 
ences, particularly those of steady confinement and faulty 
positions assumed for ease or through carelessness, prove 
to be the predisposing causes. 

The precise and remote cause of spinal curvature is 
indeed still obscure. There appears to be a tendency to 
it in some which is absent in others, since two girls of 
the same age may be subjected to the same conditions, 
one of whom will exhibit the affection, while the other 
will escape. Exactly in what this tendency consists we 
do not know, although there are various theories about it ; 
but the practical point is, that as it is impossible to tell 
which of any given number of girls may have this ten- 



54 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

dency latent, all influences which favour its occurrence, 
— such as the ones already commented upon, as well as 
other bad attitudes, the carrying of heavy weights in 
childhood, absence of exercise and therefore a lack of 
muscular vigour, — should be carefully avoided, while 
all conditions favouring the development of the spinal 
ligaments and muscles in their natural relations should 
be courted by girls who desire health and a good 
figure. 

Certain special exercises, which tend to cultivate the 
spinal muscles and their general suppleness, will be sug- 
gested later • but at present we shall point out two or 
three practical methods of remedying some of the 
present evils of school-life. 

These remedies are two or three in number, and 
all simple, and easily applied. First, the conditions of 
school-study should be made comfortable for the girls by 
providing them with chairs and desks suitable to their 
height and development. These differences in height 
can be adjusted by variations in the chairs, changing the 
desks being more expensive, besides being more difficult 
in adjustment. The chair should be of such a height 
that the girl may rest her feet firmly and easily upon 
the floor, or upon a firm foot-rest, the seat being deep 
enough from before backward to accommodate about 
three fourths of the length of the thigh. Next, the back 
of the chair should be so curved as to support the spine 




Fig. 5. The correct attitude at the desk. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 55 

easily in its natural curves, both at the waist, or lumbar 
region, and also at the shoulder-blade level. 

To fit the curves of the spine, chairs should be curved 
slightly forward at the waist region and backward at the 
point of the shoulder-blades, reaching just above their 
lower level. Chair and desk should be so close to one 
another that the student need not lean forward to read 
from books, which position tends to round the shoulders, 
and flatten the chest, and often to induce short-sighted- 
ness. If the desk and chair are properly arranged the 
girl can easily rest two thirds of her forearm upon the 
desk, without raising her shoulders by so doing. In 
writing, students should sit erect, with the body parallel 
with the horizontal axis of the desk, not twisted to one 
side or sitting upon one hip, as our first model is seated. 
The proper position at the desk is illustrated by Fig. 5, 
the feet resting easily upon the floor, and the back sup- 
ported in the erect position by the chair. Writing should 
be taught and practised in this position, which will be 
found perfectly easy, if no other position has first been 
taught. The long confinement in the schoolroom may 
be made less irksome and its ill effects upon muscles 
practically obviated if two or three short intermissions of 
from five to ten minutes are given during the four or five 
hours session, and these utilized for muscular exercise 
and recreation. The trouble is that many girls use 
these periods of intermission for extra cramming of 



56 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

lessons, while others are either too indolent to move 
their bodies when they have the opportunity or too ig- 
norant of the necessity for so doing. A few brief but 
interesting series of exercises should be planned for these 
short intermissions which would give exercise to the arms 
and shoulders, a few bending movements for the waist 
and back, and some simple but brisk movements for the 
feet, which recreation would obviate the muscular weari- 
ness that follows immobihty, and would greatly lessen 
the tendency of faulty positions temporarily assumed to 
settle into awkward or distorted figures. 

Such a short series is actually given in several of our 
best schools in New York and elsewhere to the writer's 
knowledge, with great benefit to all concerned. Where 
they are not provided for, girls can easily improvise some 
active movements themselves, a few suggestions about 
which we shall give in another chapter. 

The accompanying illustration (Fig. 6), taken from 
life, of a familiar attitude in standing will be recognized 
by girls probably in many cases as their own. The 
attitude was quickly assumed by a girl of fourteen who 
was asked to stand in the position habitual with her, 
upon which she immediately assumed the one here illus- 
trated. Other girls standing near her remarked that this 
was their own habitual pose. 

We know of course that it is often necessary to rest the 
body by changing the weight from both to one leg ; and 




Fig. 6. How faulty attitudes may tend to 

SPINAL CURVATURES. 



THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 57 

in such a perfectly natural position there will be a tem- 
porary lateral curvature of the spine as there is in this 
picture, whose direction will vary with the leg chosen 
for resting. This actually is the case in many beautiful 
statues which are modelled in this attitude. The difficulty 
with school-girls is that they commonly rest always upon 
the same leg, so that when this leaning pose chances to 
be always in the same direction laterally, as the one 
taken at the desk or elsewhere, the tendency toward a 
spinal distortion is by so much increased. Care should 
be taken to avoid too frequent resting upon one leg, and 
where this habit is fixed, to change the pose to the other 
side when resting is necessary. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE ON DEVELOPMENT. 

" \ A /-^^ should it be necessary," asks one, " to preach 
^ ^ exercise to every community in these days? 
Are we not the same flesh and blood as our fathers and 
our mothers who did not hear these sermons and were 
not obhged to know the reason why? Is not the instinct 
of the body guide enough for each one of us, so that we 
may rest in peace until we feel like moving, and then be 
permitted to move in the manner that best pleases us?" 
Possibly, friend, if our instincts were all educated and 
to be trusted ; if our people lived more nearly the quiet 
lives of our ancestors ; if our girls were all vigorous and 
had strong bones and fine chests and straight backs ; if 
their muscles were the useful and active servants of their 
bodies that nature intended them to be, and not the re- 
laxed structures that we oftener find them ; if the Ameri- 
can people did not need every offset possible to their 
eager and worried lives ; and lastly, if it were not as ra- 
tional and evidently necessary to educate the body as to 
educate the mind, then we might stop preaching from 



THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 59 

this text. But until this millenium has come, the preach- 
ing must go on ; and until we cease to be twenty-four 
hour clocks, we shall need the every-day winding up that 
can be found only in exercise. 

It is a healthy sign that in this busy-brained country 
so much thought has been running in the direction of 
cultivating the body. To love physical activity, to revel 
in bodily freedom is the natural love of healthy child- 
hood and the delight of a spirited boy or girl ; and if 
mature manhood and fashionable young womanhood 
feel a pride in physical attainments, it is not wholly the 
remnants of a savage instinct that gives them this de- 
light. It is a healthy sense of power, and the reflex 
upon the mind and the influence of a sound body that is 
of such inestimable value in the sports and athletics of 
the day. 

To overestimate the importance of this physical activ- 
ity upon bodily development is difficult. Serious indeed 
as are the unfavourable influences of dress and the limi- 
tations and confinement of , school upon young girls, the 
evils of insufficient exercise upon their healthy develop- 
ment outweigh them all ; for it seems to the writer that 
to this lack of proper exercise in girlhood and woman- 
hood, with its resulting weak muscular system, and all 
that involves, we must attribute a large proportion of the 
ill health and much of the unsymmetrical development 
of the girls of our day. 



60 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

The statement that the lack of exercise is responsible 
for the weak muscles of girls seems at first glance an un- 
important one, and would certainly be so if it referred 
only to the size of muscles, and if muscular tissue could 
not be shown to be of immense importance in the body. 
Once for all, however, let us disclaim any interest in the 
development of huge muscles. Enormous muscles are 
not the aim and object of exercise, they are not what 
either men or women require for health, and certainly not 
for beauty. Such undue development is often only local, 
— as, for instance, the immense arm or over-developed ^ 
shoulders of the athlete, — and does not necessarily mean 
fine health or symmetry. But by recalling two or three 
facts about the body we shall see how the weak muscular 
system of girls can be shown to necessitate a limitation 
of most of the great functions. For instance, weak 
muscles if they affect the heart may result in poor circu- 
lation; if they include the chest, there is insufficient 
respiratory power ; if the stomach, some forms of indiges- 
tion follow, any one or all of which is capable of resulting 
in impoverished blood, in brain-tire, in overgrowth of 
fat in the body, and even in severe functional pain. In 
addition, with weak muscles follow relaxed support to the 
body, and so come stooping shoulders, the weak back, 
poor carriage and many other undesirable deficiencies 
that limit the development and beauty of a girl. These 
facts give to the muscular system greater importance 



THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 6l 

than it would at first sight appear to deserve, but obser- 
vation and physiology bear out the important position it 
holds in the economy of the body. 

There are two great channels through which the body 
accomplishes its will, either in work or play; these 
channels are the muscles and the nerves. The whole 
bony skeleton, strong and complete as it is, is useless 
without some power which will move it, and, except to 
an anatomist, is ugly except it is clothed. The moving 
power and the clothing alike are furnished principally by 
the muscles, of which over five hundred have been 
counted on the exterior of the body. These, as we 
know, have their activity initiated and controlled by the 
nerves ; and it is when both of these channels are per- 
fectly smooth and unobstructed, as one may say, that we 
get grace and control of the body so that we are able to 
use it in any desired direction. 

It would seem evident that so large a part of the body 
as is represented by such a mass of material as these five 
hundred muscles, and which contains one fourth of all 
the blood in the body, must be intended to play an im- 
portant part of some kind in the economy, and that the 
vigour or weakness of such a mass must seriously affect 
the rest of the organism ; but upon looking closer into 
the body, we find that these five hundred external mus- 
cles by no means represent all the muscles of the body. 
On the contrary, the most important internal organs of 



62 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

the body are either wholly or in part composed of mus- 
cles, and muscular fibres in greater or less profusion are 
distributed over most of the internal structures. The 
external muscles are what we call voluntary, and are 
under the immediate control of the will. They are 
somewhat different in their intimate structure from the. 
internal muscles, but the function of both is the same^ 
and the laws that govern their growth and their useful- 
ness are identical. 

We are famihar with the wide distribution of the ex- 
ternal muscles. We know the large masses of muscles 
that move the thigh and leg, the shorter bundles in the 
shoulder region; we find tiny strips of muscle in the 
wings of the nose and in the eyelids ; short bands that 
run between the ribs to raise and lower them in respira- 
tion ; longer bands that bind together the spinal vertebrae 
and hold the back erect ; numerous groups that permit 
the complex activities of the hand, — in fact, muscle, 
which is the lean meat of lower animals, covers the entire 
skeleton, and moves it at our will ; and it is a fact that the 
growth of the skeleton itself is very dependent upon the 
amount of exercise or the number of muscular move- 
ments that the growing girl may indulge in. 

These external muscles have a helpful way of stor- 
ing in their recesses extra amounts of oxygen, over 
and above what they require for their own immediate 
use, which they keep as a reserve material against the 



THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 63 

day of sudden or prolonged exertion and need, and 
this function they exercise over and above their con- 
tracting power. 

But look at the wide distribution of muscle in the 
interior of the body. There is the heart, whose stout 
walls are all muscle, the incessant and vigorous con- 
traction of which is the necessity of the body ; there are 
many of the blood-vessels depending largely upon the 
muscular fibre contained in their walls to help along the 
blood-current. There is the entire digestive canal, whose 
structure is almost entirely composed of different coats 
of muscles ; and upon the healthful activity of these 
muscular walls, which move about the food from place 
to place and bring it into contact with the digestive 
juices, depends the digestion and nourishment of the 
owner. 

Muscular tissue also forms an important part of the 
respiratory apparatus, being found in the wind-pipe and 
small bronchial tubes, and even in the air-cells of the 
lungs, where they assist, by their contractions, the respira- 
tory process. In the abdominal and pelvic organs, mus- 
cle takes a large part. It is well known that the uterus 
itself is a solid muscular organ ; and, what is also of very 
practical importance, the ligaments that support and 
retain it in the pelvic cavity are also supplied with mus- 
cles upon which much of their tonic contraction de- 
pends. The floor of the pelvic cavity, upon whose tone 



64 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

the normal position of the uterus depends, is also largely 
muscular ; and the regions about this locality are gener- 
ously suppHed with muscular tissue, which gives it firm- 
ness and support. Muscular tissue is also present in the 
ovary, and elsewhere in the internal economy it may be 
found ; but enough has been said to indicate its wide 
distribution and great importance. 

The other channel through which the body accom- 
plishes its will is the nerves. It is common knowledge 
that, in general terms, our external muscles move through 
our willing them to do so, and that the orders for work 
are transmitted to them by the nerves ; but perhaps we 
less commonly think of another important office filled by 
the nervous system, without which our muscles, even in 
executing movements, would play us very droll tricks. 
This is the co-ordinating power exercised by the brain 
over our muscles, by which it gradually teaches them to 
execute a movement, as we say, correctly, — so harmoniz- 
ing the different actions of the muscles called into play at 
one time that they do not each work for a different end, 
and so exhibit a motley disturbance (some fibres pulling 
up, some down, some in, some out), but all, after some 
education, tend smoothly to execute the one command. 
How the practice of different movements tends to edu- 
cate muscles is very easily seen in the infant, who reaches 
eagerly but vainly for a gaudy toy, now striking out right, 
now left, now up, now down, but generally all in vain. 



THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 65 

until the nerves of the eye and the others in control of 
the hand have together calculated the distance and har- 
monized the contractions of the necessary muscles so 
that they are just sufficient to reach and seize the desired 
object. 

What is the reason that a boy who is learning to write 
finds it such a painful task, or that another climbing a 
tree for the first time presents such a bewildering confu- 
sion of sprawling legs and wiggling body? In technical 
language, it is because the boys have not learned to co- 
ordinate their muscular movements, — have not, in other 
words, practised the movement often enough to have 
made their nerves perfect channels which easily carry the 
brain's message to the muscles, — not letting some of it 
spread out into the by-paths of muscles unnecessary for 
use, but confining it exactly in the legitimate path. Now, 
this co-ordination is one of the most important results 
of exercise of any kind. The spine, for instance, is the 
pivotal point of the body. To maintain it erect is not 
so much a question of great strength of the spinal mus- 
cles, as of their proper equilibrium. If the right-side 
muscles pull more actively than the left, we are no longer 
erect ; but when the power of both sides is in equilibrium, 
we are finely upright. The tight-rope dancer is a mar- 
vel, not because she has such enormously developed 
muscles in her spinal column which carries itself so per- 
fectly, but because these muscles are equally developed 



66 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

in power and activity, in absolute equilibrium, sensitive 
to orders and accurate in obeying them, and when they 
become otherwise, she falls at once. Indeed, the true 
secret of grace is dependent on this perfect equilibrium 
of the body. It means that we use those muscles, and 
those only, that are necessary for the movement; and 
this fine control, this perfect balance of muscular power 
and activity which we call co-ordination, may be gained 
for some one part by special training, but for the whole 
body only by general exercise. And so by this repeated 
movement the nerve is improving the muscle's strength, 
• facility, and health ; and the muscle, bringing fresh blood 
to nourish the parts and giving by its exertions fresh 
exercise to the nerves, is also improving the nerve 
power. The influence for good \ipon both is reciprocal 
and constant, and this influence is what we mean by 
training. This is the end and object of the practice of 
anything, — of ball-playing or tennis or swimming or 
croquet or walking, as in the case of the infant, who 
must learn to co-ordinate the right muscles before a step 
is possible. In each and all of these sports and exercises 
which call into use the functions of nerve and muscle, 
and therefore train them imperceptibly to themselves, 
we are all unpractised, or, as we say, awkward, until the 
nerve channels which carry the order and the muscle 
channels which execute it are both perfectly smooth to 
transmit and quick to respond. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO 
FOR THE BODY. 

WHEN we ask what exercise can do for the 
human body we put into the word exercise a 
very definite meaning. We do not mean for instance 
the occasional walk that a girl may take on the beach, 
or the single riding or fencing or gymnasium lesson that 
she takes once or twice a month. The meaning of the 
word involves the idea of repeated practice, — something, 
whatever it may be, that we do once and again and 
again, possibly for pleasure only, but generally with the 
additional idea of perfecting ourselves in the practice. 
And it is only when these muscular movements are re- 
peated and practised that we can dignify them by the 
name of exercise, or demand of them any results, either 
in skill or strength or agility or general bodily vigour. 
So we shall be understood here as speaking of the regu- 
lar practice of muscular movements in some fashion or 
another, and muscular movements which, either through 
design or accident, bring into play a large part of the 
body, and do it systematically ; for the need for repe- 



68 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

tition is as necessary in educating the body as in train- 
ing the mind. If we want to impress anything upon the 
brain, that thing has goife- to be repeated until the impres- 
sion has sunk in ; and if you want to make any definite 
impression upon these thousands of muscle fibres and 
train the co-ordinating power of all these nerve centres, 
and improve the conformation of the skeleton, and de- 
velop the capacity of all the organs, you will have to keep 
at it until the physical impression lightly made to-day, 
repeated to-morrow, has at last become an indelible 
memory, and the habit of the body, " What can you 
promise that systematic exercise will do for me? " asks a 
young girl of fifteen, seeking for some definite answer as 
to results. Well, it will simply make you more of a 
woman in every sense than you could possibly be without 
it. It will do this by improving every organ you use in 
movement ; it will supple all your joints so that grace and 
ease will belong to them ; it will make fatigue less fre- 
quent, and breathlessness uncommon ; it will give you a 
bigger chest and more supple limbs and some force in 
your arms ; it will clear away the fog in your brain, and 
the dyspepsia in your stomach, and bring you a rose for 
your cheek ; and when your example has been followed 
by the girls of one or two more generations, it will give 
the world an idea what a noble creation a physically de- 
veloped woman can be. Only it must be genuine exer- 
cise, and it must be systematic, otherwise the body will 



SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 69 

forget its cunning, and the lesson will not have been 
learned. 

The way that exercise can actually change the struc- 
tures of the body, so that they will be different not only 
as to power, but to touch and appearance and intimate 
constitution, is well seen in an exercised muscle. 

A muscle that is exercised has evidently been pro- 
foundly changed in its quahties, — its fibres have become 
firmer and harder ; it has lost its superfluous fat ; it is 
evidently less liable to fatigue than before its training ; it 
does not suffer the pains common to unused muscles 
after exertion. It has become, in fact, not only a more 
enduring instrument, but one much more competent to 
execute our pleasure ; it is swifter and more graceful 
because more exact in its execution of our commands. 
Exactly what has gone on in its interior we do not see, 
but we know by certain experiments that by its exertions 
it has helped to throw off waste products in the body, 
burning them up by its internal heat, and so helping to 
free the body of these hindrances, and that its activity 
has also quickened the circulation and the respiration, 
so that heart and lungs are engaged simultaneously in 
eliminating worn-out material and bringing new to 
refresh the body. 

The feeling of fatigue from which delicate persons 
suffer greatly, after even slight exertion, is probably bet- 
ter endured by one who exercises constantly, because. 



^0 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

among other reasons, the nerve which supplies the muscle 
has become hardened by the repeated contractions of 
the muscle, so that its covering is rendered more resist- 
ant to pressure, and it becomes less sensitive to the buf- 
fetings of the muscle-bed in which it Ues. 

Since we see this process of improvement gradually 
going on in an external muscle under exercise, there is 
no reason why we should doubt that the same results are 
brought about in the internal organs and structures that 
we have learned are largely composed of muscle ; and ex- 
perience shows us that exercise does actually strengthen 
the muscle of the heart so that its contractions become 
more energetic with its increasing firmness of fibre, and 
it performs its work more vigorously, and at the same 
time more easily, than when it was less strong. 

A soft and flabby heart muscle, such as sometimes 
occurs after a long illness, is indeed in no better condi- 
tion to work wisely than is the rest of a convalescent's 
body, which is trembling with weakness, and unable to 
direct its steps. The nerves that should control such a 
heart are evidently sharers in its weakness, and so are 
unable to guide it with a steady hand. Tonics and nu- 
trition are what these convalescents need for the body in 
general ; and for girls as well as for their elders, exercise 
is the tonic that the heart requires in health, under which 
it gains the steady control and the muscular power that 
the body requires for perfect development. 



SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. /I 

Breathlessness, that disagreeable foe to exertion, is 
always lessened by exercise, for two or three reasons. 
In all unusual exertion the heart pumps blood so quickly 
to the lungs as oftentimes to embarrass them; being 
unaccustomed to the sudden demand for more air, they 
are confused, as we may say, and hardly know how to 
adjust their machinery to the demand. And besides that 
fact, they have been unaccustomed to make use of their 
whole territory, many of their air-cells being under ordi- 
nary circumstances quite unexpanded and idle. It is 
this confusion that we call breathlessness ; and like similar 
unexpected incidents elsewhere in life, if we can only know 
of it beforehand we can be prepared for the emergency, 
and avert the confusion incident to the surprise. Now, 
exercise acts upon the lungs as moral training does upon 
the character, — gradually accustoming them to prepare 
for and meet the emergencies of sudden exertion with 
calmness; so that they really learn to breathe more 
deeply and more evenly under this efficient teacher, and 
to make less ado about it at the same time. The ascent 
of two stairs at once, to one accustomed to mount only 
one at a time, will at first make a girl " out of breath ; '' 
but constant repetition of the exercise will make it as 
easy to ascend two as one, while breathing with ease 
and comfort. So will a run down a gymnasium hall, 
or swinging of Indian clubs, mean breathlessness to 
one who tries it for a first time ; but the ease with 



y2 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

which one in training can perform these trifling exercises, 
and many more considerable, shows how the lungs are 
trained by exercise to adjust themselves to work, so that 
they take in more breath and take it in more easily than 
before. The experience of mountain climbers corrobo- 
rates this ; and that is the secret of " training " in 
running, or other rapid exercises. 

The joints are immensely improved by exercise ; and 
this is a direction that needs cultivation and repays the 
training. 

It is really upon the ease with which we move our 
joints that most of our grace and skill in movements de- 
pends. And perhaps some of the most noticeable regions 
of improvement through exercise are the joints. By 
movements they rapidly become more Hmber, more sup- 
ple and easy in their movements. Piano-practice is a 
proof of the influence of constant exercise upon the joints 
in the hands and wrists, as well as an excellent one of 
what training will do to strengthen and educate muscles. 
The acrobat, too, and the contortionist show the result 
of constantly exercising the joints of the body, while or- 
dinary gymnasium practice soon shows its results in the 
increased pliability of the shoulder and arm joints. The 
fluid that lubricates these regions is probably increased 
in quantity by exercise, so increasing the smoothness 
of their action ; and we know, too, that constant exercise 
tends to delay the changes in the joints that come with 



SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 73 

old age, when concretions form, and the fluid is appar- 
ently less in quantity, with the result that the joints be- 
come stiff, and are moved even with pain. 

It is not a gracious thing to refer to the age of ladies, 
but it is well known that the most famous and charming 
women actors are no longer in their girlhood ; yet who 
would fancy from the grace of motion and the supple at- 
titudes, and the succession of rapid changes in position, 
involving sometimes the larger proportion of the impor- 
tant muscles and joints of the body, that these women 
were beyond their earliest youth. In fact these queens 
of the stage put to shame, in their physical accomplish- 
ments, the average girl of sixteen or twenty, and this by 
no means because they were born graceful and supple ; 
on the contrary most of them have attained this skill 
through persistent exercise, carried on systematically for 
many years. In the sense of the bodily changes that 
mean old age, such people will remain young long be- 
yond the natural period, and are generally physically 
fresh to the end. 

The muscular structure of the uterus and the adjacent 
organs would lead us to the presumption that, like the 
heart, exercise might have a specific effect upon its de- 
velopment and its functions, and experience confirms 
this presumption. 

It should be distinctly understood by girls that there 
are many forms of pelvic pain, especially in young girls, 



74 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

which are attended by and are believed by physicians to 
be due to the lack of muscular development of these 
organs, to the fact that they have not really attained 
their normal size, and consequently they perform with 
difficulty functions which they were intended to per- 
form with ease. The general weak muscular develop- 
ment found in many such girls, commonly accom- 
panied as it is by a poor circulation and poor res- 
piratory capacity, generally means that the muscular 
structure of the pelvic organs is similarly weak and un- 
able to perform its duty. The poor respiration means 
an unoxygenated quaHty of blood. Not only is the 
heart muscle weak, but the nerves which control the 
blood-vessels may be more or less paralyzed, so that they 
permit stagnation or congestion of the blood in this 
region, and hence may arise severe cramps and other 
distressing symptoms. It should be noticed that in such 
cases these symptoms do not arise from disease of the 
organs, but from non-development of its structure, the 
infantine organs not being equal to the functions of adult 
Ufe. The beneficial effect of exercise upon these condi- 
tions is continually being shown by the fact that such 
girls during a course of systematic exercise, along with 
the development of other muscular structures, evidently 
develop the muscular fibre of the uterus so that it be- 
comes competent for its function ; and by this means, and 
by the coincident improvement of their general and local 



SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 75 

circulation, they may lose the habit of pain, generally 
forever. It is quite true that there is another class of 
such neuralgiac affections that owe their origin to actual 
disease ; but the more frequent and therefore the most 
encouraging class of cases among young girls is this 
variety that is evidently due to a failure in development, 
and which only adds a new argument for that physical 
education which shall result in the complete develop- 
ment of a girl. 

The effects demonstrated by exercise upon the diges- 
tive canal, composed, as that is, so largely of muscu- 
lar fibre, are very evident. Anything that develops 
the natural powers of organs improves their structure. 
Since digestion depends partly upon the movements 
of food all about the stomach, which are effected by 
its muscular coats, and intestinal digestion also partly 
upon the vigour of the muscular coats of that canal, we 
can readily beHeve that a better digestion and more reg- 
ularity of the intestinal functions, and consequently better 
health and vigour will follow strengthening of this mus- 
cular structure. Practically we find this true, dyspepsia 
and constipation being often relieved by the prescription 
of muscular exertion when medicine has failed. 

Exercise will also undoubtedly reduce fat in the body. 
While a certain amount of this tissue is indispensable, 
and many girls need more instead of less, many individ- 
uals suffer from an excess, which is really undesirable for 



76 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

various reasons. Such excess is a dead weight upon the 
body. Now, it appears to be so partly from its actual 
mechanical weight, and partly because it absorbs a large 
quantity of oxygen which would otherwise go to support 
more useful parts of the body, so that very stout persons 
easily become breathless because the supply of oxygen 
which should belong to the body in general is largely 
appropriated for the benefit of adipose tissue alone. 
Exercise reduces fat evidently by increasing perspiration, 
which subtracts water from the fatty tissue, and also by 
increasing the combustion and destruction of its con- 
stituents. 

So through all the different machinery of the body 
we can trace the benefits of regular exercise in invigor- 
ating and developing organs and making their working 
power greater and easier ; and we can see how we have 
by exercise really improved upon ourselves as we came 
from nature (not as we were intended to come, however), 
and have, seeing the changes that we can effect at will 
in this way, demonstrated to ourselves once more that 
heredity, powerful as it is, is by no means all powerful 
and conclusive. 

Suppose we look for a moment at the record of 
*' gains" that can be shown in a girl's gymnasium. It 
is not a small thing that a young woman should have all 
of her body machinery so improved and stimulated to 
growth by twelve months' practice in a gymnasium that 



SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. T^ 

she should add two inches to her narrow chest, the same 
to her stature, and increase her lung capacity by thirty 
per cent. It is not unimportant, when we remember the 
small strength of her arms when she entered, and how 
tired her back, that she should find many of her strength 
tests doubled in actual figures, and that she can look 
with a pardonable pride upon the erect spine and the 
vigorous arm that she has gained for herself in these 
few months, while the consciousness of controlling her 
body instead of having it control her, the knowledge 
that skill and agiUty and courage and a dozen other 
longed-for qualities have come to her through these few 
months of systematic but pleasurable practice, make the 
benefits of exercise seem very real to her, and to many 
others such as she. For this is not a fancy sketch, but 
has been repeated once and once again within the 
writer's knowledge, and I doubt not is being happily 
repeated in every well-organized gymnasium in the land, 
where the city girl is having an opportunity to recover 
her birthright. 

Figures have been printed in every recent book that 
has been written upon any one's experience in the direc- 
tion of physical training, to prove what wonderful gains 
can be made in a few weeks or months of systematic 
exercise. It is nothing unusual to find much more 
startling records than the simple case that has just been 
quoted. Every one of experience knows that a chest 



78 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

can be developed, and arms can be increased in size, and 
backs can be strengthened and straightened, and muscu- 
lar strength even trebled. But once more, desirable as 
these things are, it must be remembered that they are 
only the external signs and token of the many complex 
changes for good that have been simultaneously going on 
within the body, by which the whole economy has been 
stimulated to better growth, quicker life, and higher 
activity, improving its chances for life and doubling its 
capacity for enjoyment. 

These results of exercise prove its importance for the 
adult and the mature as well as for the child and the 
young girl who has yet to perfect her physical powers ; 
they help to persuade us that even after physical training 
has helped to develop us in youth there is still a large 
sphere for it in maintaining the good work it has begun, 
so that exercise is part of the privilege of the mature 
young woman as well as of the undeveloped girl. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 

THAT we should be obliged to sit down and seri- 
ously consider how our girls can find sufficient 
exercise to promote their development and to gratify 
their natural love for physical sport is a commentary 
upon our distance from nature. Fancy a gypsy mother 
or an ItaHan peasant devising a ^^ system " for develop- 
ing the muscles and bones of their hearty offspring ! 
• The gypsy, it is true, gives her baby a species of mas- 
sage, with frequent baths and rubbings, and plenty of 
exposure to the sun ; but her list is a simple one, and 
very like Dame Nature's own nursing. While the system 
of the Italian peasant, who herself is perhaps driving her 
mule or bringing wood, consists in putting the little girl 
to goat- ten ding, where she can develop sturdy legs in 
running after the household stock, until later, she too 
may rise to the dignity of mule-driving or crop-tending, 
or kindred offices performed for the benefit of the mas- 
culine member of the household. 

But the march of civilization and the inrush of emi- 
grants have long ago made field-labour, and in fact much 



80 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

of any so-called manual labour, an unknown factor in the 
life of the American girl, — even in the humbler walks of 
Hfe, making buttons or polishing pin-points having long 
ago taken the place of hay-making or reaping in our free 
country ; and this curtailing of out-door life, which gives 
bodily exercise in what we call the " natural " way, 
has increased with schools and social culture and con- 
ventionalities until it has become for the average girl a 
serious question as to how she may regain some of that 
physical activity which in primitive Hfe is the price paid 
for existence. 

When objectors decry to-day, as they constantly do, 
any " systems " of exercise, they must remember that the 
place is America, with its climate and its national tem- 
perament, variable, nervous, active, and that the time is 
now, not in idyllic days when Maud Mullers, spent whole 
mornings in the hay-field or Grace Darlings lived conve- 
niently near to a row-boat, but when school-life absorbs 
most of a young girl's vitality, and society (even for the 
tiniest) what remnant remains, and that there are no 
hay-fields convenient to most cities, and row-boats are 
useless when the river is frozen, while horses and riding 
are not for the moderate many. Still the muscles cry 
out for activity, and the nerves play their pranks in 
sheer desperation ; and our girls are often thin-limbed 
and hollow-chested, and in a word lack robustness. 
But civilization has come to stay; and we must meet 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 8l 

its evils with its advantages, and invent a way for this as 
for other American needs, by which the necessities can 
be satisfied. 

What has it left us, then, for use and for pleasure in 
the line of physical activities for girls ? And what is the 
attraction and the value of these employments? So 
short is the summer season of out-of-doors life that the 
sports peculiar to it are necessarily Hmited as means 
either for constant pleasure or development. Yet we 
must herald the popularity of tennis and archery and 
(girls') cricket as exercises which fill the demand for 
pleasurable activity in the open air, with plenty of exer- 
cise that is for the most part unobjectionable. It is the 
opinion of some physicians that tennis offers too violent 
exercise for the majority of girls, and that it can be held 
responsible for many serious pelvic difficulties that would 
never have occurred without it ; and there is no reason 
to doubt that accidents, possibly otherwise avoidable, 
have occurred in some cases after imprudent devotion to 
the game. 

But in most of these tennis victims inquiry will often 
reveal the fact that the tendency to these complaints 
pre-existed with, probably, a weak muscular system, and 
was only manifested, as is natural, after imprudence in 
this exercise ; and second, that these girls often played in 
most unhygienic costume, — the tight corset fitting snugly 
around a figure that required perfect freedom and space 

6 



82 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

in order to make the rapid and energetic movements 
sometimes required, without strain or undue pressure. 
All that has been said about the corset with its perni- 
cious downward pressure and constriction of chest space 
applies with double force to its use under these circum- 
stances, the design of the tennis costume itself being 
sufficient evidence of the style that is held to be correct 
and comfortable. Played in any other than a loose and 
light dress its tendency might be considered hurtful, 
played in excess it deserves the same reprobation that 
immoderation of all kinds should receive ; and as it is 
very active exercise, it should not be indulged in by those 
who have pelvic difficulties of a nature to be harmed by 
such exercise. Such girls should receive the advice of 
their physician before attempting it. It is quite evident 
that in this, or any other active game, a girl should use 
some discretion in estimating her own powers. One 
who has never been accustomed to much muscular exer- 
cise, and whose muscles are consequently relaxed and 
weak, would far better strengthen her muscular system 
first by gentler methods, developing their supporting 
and resisting qualities by degrees, after which this more 
vigorous exercise would be only pleasure, instead of an 
actual pain or possibly even detriment. (The caution 
applies equally to all new games which may be intro- 
duced by fashion or chance to persons whose previous 
muscular education and capacity are entirely unprepared 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 83 

for them.) The general body exercise obtained through 
this game is so much more comprehensive than that 
afforded by most sports enjoyed by girls that it would 
certainly be desirable that moderation and personal dis- 
cretion should so guide as to make it possible to 
popularize it everywhere. 

In its call upon the legs for activity, its exercise for 
the hand and eye in aiming and placing the ball, in the 
demand for agility and skill, it offers most of the qualities 
required both for pleasurable activity and for bodily train- 
ing. It has in common with most other sports the one- 
armed element, which prevents its being the absolutely 
perfect exercise for the entire body that we could de- 
sire, — for the ideal exercise is that which calls in play 
every member of the body, and gives harmonious activity 
to all. 

Of all the out-door sports swimming is the only one 
which answers this requirement, — and this is an exercise 
which for pleasure, activity, and health, and for its almost 
perfect balance of bodily powers, should receive more 
attention from girls, and become a part of their physical 
education. The loose dress and the contact with nature, 
the absolute freedom of Hmb and the expansion of chest 
and extension and support of the spine, combined with 
the zest of a daring accomplishment, make it one of the 
most perfect and desirable of exercises for girls. It has 
the drawback of being for the most part possible only 



84 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

during a very short season of the year ; but we must seize 
the goods the gods allow in this respect, and the courage 
and vigour and development that are gained through the 
short summer season may prove the roots of larger 
growth, and are certainly useful in forming the taste for 
activity and physical freedom which once it is embued 
is a life-long possession of priceless value. 

With the water comes the rower, and rowing can be 
recommended for almost all girls of any size who are 
strong enough to handle even one oar. The one arm 
gains steadiness with practice, and when two are used 
there is plenty of exercise for the back and the legs, and 
a certain steadiness and pliability gained at the waist that 
help to strengthen these generally undeveloped muscles 
of a girl. 

Archery, which stretches the arm and chest muscles 
well and trains the eye to precision, and cricket, which 
has not become a well-naturalized game for girls as 
yet in our country, but which even when badly played 
offers plenty of exercise for arms and legs and heart 
and lungs, may help to swell the list of the out-door 
sports ; and every one is an accession, for the girls' list 
is always too small. 

Skating, like walking, is an exercise which makes large 
demands upon the lower part of the body principally, 
although the bracing air and the exhilarating sport are a 
tonic to the heart and stimulate respiration. 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 85 

Not less exhilarating, and oftener obtainable, is riding, 
— an accomplishment which with all nations has held 
something of the repute it sustained with the Persians, 
who required of their sons only to ride, to shoot, and to 
speak the truth. 

Although much less easy for women than for men, 
with their more constrained position, and too often 
fashionably restricted dress, we must allow that with all 
its limitations it is an exercise most wholesome and 
desirable. Young girls with tendencies to crooked 
spines may find it sometimes increases that difficulty, 
and those with pronounced deviations may be obliged to 
relinquish it temporarily. In some cases changing the 
saddle to the other side will relieve the tendency to one- 
sidedness, and many women habitually use two saddles to 
prevent any such danger. But this tendency aside, it is 
an exercise which takes one so continuously and joy- 
ously into the open air, and its activity is so fraught with 
helpful results to the digestive, thoracic, and abdominal 
organs, that, especially in cities where exercise is so 
difficult to obtain as an unmixed good, it should be 
warmly recommended. 

But the summer months are only three in number, the 
streams become frozen in time, the snow covers the 
tennis ground, and even riding with a great coat becomes 
impossible. Where, then, shall the girls seek the daily 
bread which comes to their bodies through exercise ? 



86 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

There are days of snow and rain, when even walking 
is a burden, and, perhaps unfortunately, when the younger 
children are not allowed to try their fortunes in the parks 
or even on the sidewalk. Still the muscles cry for activ- 
ity, and the bad tempers of the little ones, and the ner- 
vous irritability of their elders, and the returning head- 
aches that summer's air and exercise had dissipated are 
upon them, and the girls do not know that the best 
prescription that their doctor could leave them would 
be an hour's shaking up in a well-aired gymnasium 
with dumb-bells for medicine ; for we believe the well- 
appointed, carefully supervised gymnasium is to be the 
answer to the general call for opportunities for exercise 
in our cities. The life of a small country town or vil- 
lage or suburb offers out-door sports through the entire 
winter that are totally inaccessible to the city girl. 
Coasting and skating, sleigh-riding, tramps in the snow, 
and games on the spacious playgrounds may suffice if 
they are taken advantage of, for the dwellers out of 
town, although even there the schools need to introduce 
some muscular exercises into their curriculum, and 
parents cannot afford to entirely neglect the physical 
education of their children at home ; but the average 
city girl or young woman has actually no resource in the 
direction of exercise during the winter months except a 
walk or a dance. Riding and driving are limited to the 
comparatively few, and even then, as we have seen, are 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 87 

not possible in a large proportion of the days of winter. 
Walking is generally, but not always, possible. The day 
is lowering, or the object is lacking, and the exercise 
is neglected. In fact there are some reasons why walk- 
ing is less useful for an all-round exercise for girls than 
gymnasium practice, although it has the great advantage 
of taking them out to seek their own oxygen first hand. 
But the aversion of whole boarding-schools full of girls 
to their hour's promenade, albeit the days may be fine 
and their company tolerable, shows how needful is some 
allurement, some object ahead, be it only, as one humour- 
ist suggests, a confectioner's shop, to give zest to this 
exercise, which in itself has little variety. " A real fur 
cape " says our same T. W. H. '^ maybe counted as good 
for three miles," or any other innocent inducement for 
being abroad. 

For walking one should have time in abundance (for 
every girl requires an amount of daily exercise not to 
be gained by less than a two to four mile walk), besides 
an object, and not too much immobihty in the pose. 
Even then the muscles of the chest get little movement, 
and those of the abdomen and spine even less; and 
actual movement and activity are what we must furnish 
if we are developing chests and beautifying bodies in 
nature's way. 

If our American girls could be trained in walking as we 
hear their duskier sisters in warmer climates are trained, 



88 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

the exercise would indeed bring elasticity and vigour 
and endurance ; but here again civilization interferes. 
These lemon-coloured girls of the West Indies, who " have 
figures to make you dream of Atalanta," begin at the age 
of five to carry small articles on their heads as they walk, 
a bowl of rice, a decanter full of water, an orange on a 
plate, — something that will compel an erect attitude and 
a steady pose of the head. These children are destined 
to become the porteuses of the island, carrying bread and 
fruit supphes far into the interior. When one of these is 
nine or ten she can carry a basket weighing from twenty 
to thirty pounds, and walks perhaps twelve miles a day, 
always bare-foot. At sixteen or seventeen she is a tall, 
robust girl, lithe, vigorous, carrying her tray weighing 
from one hundred pounds and upward, and traversing a 
daily route varying from thirty to fifty miles a day. With 
this wonderful specimen of what training will do, we may 
believe there is not a muscle unexercised in her body. 
The object, which with her is a necessity, the time, the 
freedom of movement, and the regularity of exercise are 
all present in this case, and the result is this specimen of 
litheness and vigour which for general physical perfection 
is the wonder and delight of travellers. One reason why 
walking is not the complete exercise it should be for 
girls lies in just this secret of lack of time. Mary Lamb 
and Miss Wordsworth could still walk their fifteen miles 
per day when they were nearing sixty, while few of our 



WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 89 

city girls can walk a daily ten miles at twenty ; but Mary 
Lamb and her friend had leisure for this exercise, and 
were not limited to the one, or at most two hours, that 
are allotted for out-door diversion in town Hfe. 

Wherefore, since the time for exercise is somewhat 
Hmited, there is the more reason for increasing the variety. 
So let the girls ride and drive and play tennis and row 
and swim and learn every sport possible out of doors, 
both winter and summer, but do not imagine that three 
months of this treatment will suffice to cure the ills of 
the other nine, nor lay the flattering unction to your soul 
that in an hour's graceful saunter down the avenue with 
her hands in a muff and her figure in a corset your young 
daughter will develop into that picture of ideal health 
and symmetry and physical perfection which you would 
fondly see. 

She will get more general exercise in the ideal gymna- 
sium in an hour, more life in her blood and colour in her 
cheek and strength in her limbs, than these city walks 
can give her in a week. Keep up the walking but culti- 
vate a better style, and add the gymnasium practice to 
it at least three times per week. Provide a room of 
ample size, thoroughly lighted and ventilated, and with 
cleanliness absolute. The apparatus should be suited to 
two or three different ages and strength. Heavy dumb- 
bells and phenomenal Indian clubs • are unnecessary, and 
generally deforming. Both bells and clubs should only 



90 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

vary between one and two pounds, — the former giving 
the best results for the majority. Ladders and ropes are 
as good for a girl as for a boy, to whose early education 
they are considered indispensable, and are fraught with 
no more danger to one than to the other. By twisting 
and pirouetting, swinging clubs and shouldering bells and 
balancing wands in an easy costume with skilful and in- 
telligent instruction from teachers who understand the 
mechanism and the capacity of the human body, the 
girls will develop chest and arms and heart and lung 
power as it cannot be developed under the conditions 
of city Ufe elsewhere. 



> 



CHAPTER IX. 

PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 

IN the well conducted gymnasium for girls, personal 
instruction, either in class or in private drill, antici- 
pates individual need, so that the pupil learns not only 
the variety of exercises calculated to improve and de- 
velop womankind in general, but the special order that 
will improve herself in particular. But as many who 
desire to exercise systematically do not have gymnasium 
advantages, and many who have them have not learned 
to fit the exercise to the need, we shall offer a few sug- 
gestions in this chapter as to the regions which most 
require exercise in girls, and some details as to how 
they may be improved. The accompanying figure 
(Fig. 7) represents in her darker outlines the regions 
in which the majority of girls need special muscular 
development. It will be noticed that the dark line is 
principally confined to the region of the trunk. This 
has been done, not because the muscles of the legs do not 
also require regular exercise, but rather because with the 
majority of girls dancing and walking have already fairly 



92 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

developed this part of the body, which is much less defi- 
cient than the upper region. 

This figure represents in a general way our experi- 
ence as to the actual deficiencies existing in the de- 
velopment of girls, and the regions where they most 
require development and muscular vigour, both for its in- 
fluence upon internal organs and for the prevention of 
possible deformities, as well as for the cultivation of that 
balance and bodily self-possession that give erectness 
and harmony to the figure. The important relations 
these regions bear to health as well as to physical beauty 
have already been touched upon in the chapters on 
School-Life and Dress, as well as elsewhere. 

No attempt will be made to give any long series of 
exercises for these different regions, but only to suggest a 
few that may easily be carried out either at home or in 
the gymnasium, with or without apparatus, which will 
themselves be suggestive of additional simple and com- 
plex movements which the pupil can improvise herself. 

It is not the variety or complexity of the exercises that 
necessarily work changes in the body, although both of 
these qualities have their place in systematic training, 
but rather their application to the needs and ability of 
the individual and her persistence in their use. Miracles 
cannot be worked by desultory practice, but many re- 
markable and desirable changes in the figure and in the 
organs of the body can be brought about by degrees. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 93 

Medical gymnastics will not be touched upon in this 
chapter, as the subject involves too many considerations 
to be included here. Indeed, the best hope of physical 
training, is to anticipate the need for medicine. ^' The 
wise for cure on exercise depend." 

Let us first consider how we may improve Region C, 
which, as we see, includes the upper chest region and the 
front shoulder muscles, as well as the bust, and is con- 
cerned, therefore, with arm development, because genu- 
ine arm-exercise always influences this region. 

In all attempts to enlarge or develop the chest, how- 
ever, we must work first from within outward. Our 
training should aim to increase the actual size of the 
lungs, or more properly to expand their unused por- 
tions, so that the motive power to increase may come 
from within. 

When the lungs expand fully they press the ribs and 
the breast-bone outward, carrying, of course, the muscu- 
lar walls of the chest with them ; and consequently in an 
undeveloped person exercises that call for perfect and 
repeated lung expansion will inevitably tend to expand 
the chest, even if no special attention is given to its ex- 
ternal muscular coverings. This is seen in singers as well 
as in some players upon some wind instruments, who are 
continually filling their lungs to the utmost, and whose 
chests are uniformly larger than those of a non-singing 
individual of the same age and general development. 



94 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Therefore, singing lessons under a scientific instructor 
offer one of the best methods for developing the chest in 
girls who have any vocal talent. If no such talent exists, 
at least every girl may have some lessons in voice cul- 
ture, which, if given under a thoroughly competent 
teacher who understands the control of the larynx and 
the diaphragm will give her the vocal gymnastics which 
will assist development in the natural way. 

Next, young children, and girls under fourteen who 
have flat chests should be encouraged to play skipping 
and hopping games, and girls over fourteen should train 
themselves in short distance and moderate running. 
"Why cultivate leg exercises,'* you naturally inquire, 
"when you wish to improve the chest?'* Because the 
movements of such large masses of muscles as those of 
the legs and thighs demand large supplies of blood and 
consequent quick action on the part of the heart to sup- 
ply it ; and this blood pouring swiftly back to the lungs 
for purification requires frequent and deeper inspirations 
on their part to effect this purification. So the lungs are 
always stimulated to activity, as we have seen, by exercise, 
but more especially by exercises that call into play a large 
number of muscles at the same time. We see this in 
mountain climbing, where most of the muscles of the 
body are called into action, and we breathe deeply and 
often to supply this call for oxygen. 

In running always begin slowly, running moderately. 




\ 



Fig. 8. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 95 

for instance, fifty feet, then increase the speed gradually ; 
but when running for exercise simply, never speed to the 
utmost, as this is not necessary for the benefits of the 
exercise. Always close the run with the same modera- 
tion with which it was commenced, — that is, never stop 
short, as this sudden arrest of action gives a most un- 
desirable shock to the heart. The movement of running 
may easily be imitated in the house, while standing in one 
place, and simply lifting the feet in the same quick alter- 
nation from the floor. 

Breathing exercises may also be practised with benefit. 
Lie on the floor, or flat on a couch, extend the arms 
upward over the head ; take in as much breath as pos- 
sible while counting twelve ; hold it while counting five, 
and then slowly and gently expel it with an audible hiss- 
ing sound through the teeth. This exercise can best be 
taken in the morning before rising, or when retiring at 
night, if exercising before breakfast is unpleasant. 

Another breathing exercise which has some additional 
good effects upon the muscles of the sides of the waist 
may be taken according to Fig. 8. Raise the arms 
slowly from the sides to the position above the head, 
palms forward, inhaling deeply but gently while so doing ; 
lower arms slowly to sides, palms still forward, while 
expelling the breath. This exercise is also well taken in 
a gymnasium by means of the piece of apparatus known 
as the chest developer. It may be taken once as a 



96 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

breathing exercise, a second time without special atten- 
tion to breathing, and the third time as a breathing ex- 
ercise. Almost all movements that exercise the arms 
freely also assist chest development. This is because 
the chest muscles, after covering the chest wall in an 
expanded form, converge into a compact mass that 
passes over to the inside of the upper arm, and is in- 
serted there, so that when we move the arm we are 
stretching and exercising these chest muscles also. For 
this reason, and because all free exercise promotes lung 
development, the arms should be freely thrown about, 
and the shoulder joints exercised every day. 

The following circle exercise (Fig. 9) will be found 
to combine development for chest, shoulders, and arms 
also. It may be taken with one arm at a time, or with 
both together, or alternating first right, and then left. 
Taken with one arm it is more purely an arm exercise ; 
with both it affords considerable exercise to the chest 
and shoulder muscles. Raise both arms from the side to 
highest position of figure, or until they reach an angle of 
about eighty degrees, thumb pointing backward, palms 
turned inward; then carry arms slowly backward and 
down, at the same time turning palm, so that the thumb, 
instead of pointing backward, points forward and down, 
and then backward and down as the arms describe the 
circle of the movement, coming to rest once more at the 
side, with palms in. 




Fig. 9. 




Fig. 10. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 9/ 

Another excellent arm movement, useful also for 
broadening shoulders, and stretching the chest muscles, 
is shown in Fig. lo. It may be taken with one-pound 
(or lighter) dumb-bells in the hand, or with a lightly 
weighted bean-bag, or without any apparatus. 

Standing with feet together, stretch both arms horizon- 
tally outward, as far as possible, palms up. Bend the 
arm at elbow, bringing the palm back with a vigorous 
movement to the shoulder, resting the bell, if used, 
across the top of shoulder, as per figure. When the 
emphasis of this movement is given as above (that is, on 
the return to shoulder), the exercise brings the anterior 
muscles of the upper arm (and chest muscles) most into 
play, — namely, those which flex the arms, — and also 
gives exercise to the elbow-joint. It can be turned 
into an exercise for the back of the arm, where most 
girls are equally weak, by reversing the accent, — that 
is, starting from the shoulders, and vigorously extending 
the arms fully, the emphasis of the movement being in 
this case changed with the starting position. This may 
be used at first with one arm, then alternately, and 
finally with both together. 

Thrusting with the arms is also excellent exercise, 
which can be taken without any apparatus. Clutch the 
hands, and bending the elbows, rest the hands on chest ; 
then thrust the arm vigorously downward, then outward, 
then upward, half a dozen movements to each arm, with 

7 



98 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

vigorous thrusts in each, returning each time to the chest 
position. The movement is similar in effect to that of 
a washerwoman, or of a bread-maker kneading her dough, 
and in a gymnasium is carried on more vigorously by 
punching an inflated rubber bag ; but neither wash-board, 
bread-board, nor rubber bag are convenient in the boudoir 
of the girl who may be reading these directions, but her 
arms and sufficient space she always has at command. 

Exercise for Region S. 

Round or stooping shoulders, with the muscles of that 
region, may be corrected, and the back of the arm also 
strengthened by the following exercise, which when 
taken correctly will be distinctly felt in these regions, as 
well as in stretching the chest muscles. The pose is not 
attractive, the first position of the arm resembling some- 
what that of the bent wing of a dressed fowl as it lies 
close to the chest ; but it will be found to be an effective 
exercise for the purpose. Standing with feet together, 
raise the arms, bent at the elbows, bringing the palms 
together in front of the face (See Fig. ii). Then with 
elbows still bent, swing both arms vigorously backward 
as far as possible, to a position even with the shoulders, 
both palms looking forward, as indicated by the dotted 
arm. The exercise should be repeated a number of 
times, the hands returning each time to position in front 
of face. 



t 

\ 




Fug. II. 



^? 







Fig. 12. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 99 

The simple swinging of the arms loosely in circles 
from the shoulder- joint, the alternate flexing and extend- 
ing of fore-arm upon the arm, and the rotating movements 
of the wrist which are also beautifully cultivated by light 
club swinging, are excellent and simple methods of in- 
creasing the suppleness of these joints and the general 
freedom of these muscles. Club swinging is much more 
easily and satisfactorily learned in a few lessons from a 
teacher than from printed instructions ; but those who 
cannot have such an opportunity of so learning can still 
cultivate grace and suppleness by these simple move- 
ments without apparatus. As a complex exercise that 
calls into play most of the muscles of the arm with those 
of the back of the shoulders, and that exercises the chest 
muscles, the lumbar and the leg region at the same time, 
the movement of Fig. 1 2 may be recommended. The 
illustration sufficiently explains the positions and the 
method. The pupil stands at first with feet together, 
and hands at side. The charge forward is then made, 
first with the right foot, the left being placed behind and 
at right angles, as shown in figure, the arms being brought 
forward, level with shoulder, palms in, from which position 
they are thrown backward as widely as possible (as per 
dotted line), and held in that position a moment, falling 
to the sides once more as the original erect attitude, with 
feet together, is resumed. The second charge should be 
made to the left, the hands and arms performing the 
same evolutions as before. 



100 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Region B, 

All that we know of the functions of the spinal column, 
and all that we learn from observation of the deficiencies 
and weaknesses of girls show us how needful is the cul- 
tivation of its function as the central support of the body. 
For grace and suppleness of the body, its. thirty-four 
joints should be constantly exercised, and all the muscles 
which hold it erect, which support the head upon it, and 
which in turn attach the shoulders and hips and arms 
and legs more or less closely to it, need varied and reg- 
ular exercise. 

Therefore, from childhood special attention should be 
given to developing this region of the body. It should 
be trained both for strength and for suppleness ; and all 
the curious tricks of the contortionists, and the graceful 
and supple movements of the performers in a cir- 
cus, show how training and exercise can develop the 
many powers of the spine. All movements that bend 
the head or the body backward, or that sway it from 
side to side, maintaining meanwhile its balance, or even 
that hold it perfectly erect, as in elegant walking, tend 
more or less to cultivate a greater or less number of the 
spinal muscles ; but to reach all the long spinal muscles 
in its whole extent I know of nothing more search- 
ing and complete than the movement represented by 
Fig. 13, which in this case is given on a long bench. 




Fig. 14. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. lOI 

with a cross-bar to hold the feet, but which may be 
taken lying on a rug, or simply supported at the waist 
on a chair, the feet being caught under a lounge or 
dressing-case. 

From the prone position, the feet being firmly held 
down, the hands clasped behind at the waist, the body 
is slowly raised and carried backward to the half-sitting 
pose shown in the plate, and then lowered once more 
to position. 

In the case of girls or children whose shoulders are 
round or stooping, the hands may be clasped at the 
back of the neck. This movement may seem severe, 
or difficult; the illustration is however taken from life 
(the position being taken, in this case, by a young girl 
of fourteen), and can easily be accomplished by any one 
not an invalid or otherwise incapacitated. It should be 
taken slowly, and not more than three or four times at 
first. 

Another excellent method -of cultivating the spinal 
functions is by the simple movement represented in 
Fig. 14, which should be done with exactness to ob- 
tain the desired effec*-. Standing erect, feet together, 
rise upon toes, then sink the body to the ground, bend- 
ing the knees until the thigh and leg are literally doubled 
upon each other. The trunk however must be main- 
tained perfectly erect, the object of the exercise being 
to train the spinal muscles to perfect equilibrium, so 



I02 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

that the body shall not deviate a particle from the 
perpendicular. 

The perfection of such graceful equilibrium is seen 
in the tight-rope dancer, whose attitudes in this respect 
might be partially imitated by girls in seeking the de- 
velopment of this region of the body. Young children 
might be trained to walk upon tip- toe with a lightly- 
loaded article upon the head, such as a tiny basket 
with iron jack-straws. The displacement of the irons 
would of course precipitate the basket, so that perfect 
balance of the head and all spinal muscles below it 
would be necessary. 

Later, the experiment should be tried upon a wooden 
bar or log, still on tip-toe, with arms above the head, 
holding a light bar or cane. Such practice is repre- 
sented in Fig. 15, and is perhaps most easily carried on 
in the gymnasium, but can also be attempted at home, — 
the deUcate adjustment of spinal muscles that is ne- 
cessary receiving in this way excellent exercise, and 
offering admirable training for an erect and graceful car- 
riage. Movements similar to those performed by reap- 
ers or hewers may be imitated with or without dumb-bells, 
for the benefit of the sides of the waist and lumbar re- 
gion. A reaper gets much exercise for his arms also 
at the same time. The reaping movement may be imi- 
tated by doubling one arm upon the chest, and extend- 
ing the other outward as far as possible from the shoulder. 




Fig. 15. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 103 

Bend slightly at the hips, and twist the body from side 
to side in stooping to wield an imaginary scythe. The 
arm positions should be alternated, — th is, contrary 
to the real reaping, it should be performed first with one 
and then with the other arm. 
Region A, 

The dark line, however, has not yet been exhausted, 
for there still remain exercises for the abdomen. The 
abdominal muscles are used first in bending, in stooping 
forward, somewhat in climbing, in raising ourselves from 
recumbent positions, and many other movements. There- 
fore any exercises taken in this position will favour their 
development. Abdominal exercises are also very useful 
in reducing the undue deposit of fat in this region, from 
which many suffer. Trunk bending, therefore, both 
forward and sideways, exercises these muscles ; and al- 
though these may not appear very attractive, they are 
certainly very effectual movements. To practise them, 
stand in erect position and bend from the waist and hip 
(not from knees) forward, dropping the head easily as the 
body drops forward. Returning to position this move- 
menw should be repeated three or four times, when the 
side movement may be begun. 

The side bending may be taken with one arm over 
the head, in the sidewise position, and when bending 
forward both arms may be raised and carried forward 
with the body. 



I04 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

These bending movements should be slowly practised ; 
but the bending should be a genuine flexion of the trunk, 
not simply an inclination of the head or shoulders. Sup- 
pleness of the waist muscles will be still further obtained 
by gently swinging the body in a circle around an imag- 
inary centre, the head dropping easily with the revolv- 
ing trunk. 

Another purely abdominal exercise is taken lying on a 
rug, the feet held down under a piece of furniture. 
The body is raised from a recumbent to the upright po- 
sition without assistance from the arms, drawn only by 
the contraction of the muscles we are strengthening. 
This is an old ^* trick ^' among children, but none the 
less useful. 

A more composite and active exercise that calls in 
play many other muscles besides those of the abdominal 
region, may be taken according to Fig. 1 6 ; consisting 
of a quick diagonal movement on the part of legs, called 
a " charge " in gymnasium parlance, and a sweeping 
bend of the body with arms outstretched to pick up a 
pair of dumb-bells from the floor. The bells secured, they 
should be held against the chest while resting ; the body 
resumes its original upright position a moment, with feet 
together, when the charge may be renewed toward the 
opposite direction. It will be noticed that in charging 
to the right the right leg and foot are in advance, the 
body weight resting upon them, the knee slightly bent, 




Fig. i6. 




Fia 17. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. lOS 

while the left foot is raised at the heel, the trunk, 
pliant and unresisting, bending at the waist. 

Composite exercises such as these are very useful, not 
only because of their local effect upon a large number 
of muscles at one time, but because they necessitate co- 
ordination and supervision of these muscles by the ner- 
vous system which governs them ; and hence a composite 
exercise is admirable training for the nervous system, and 
improves its capacity to control the muscles themselves. 

Two more complex exercises may be added which 
may be performed, the one with and the other without 
apparatus, and which involve exercise for many muscles, 
— notably the spine and the legs, as well as the arms, — 
but are given here more for their influence upon the ab- 
dominal circulation and adjacent regions. 

Fig. 1 7 is tak^n without apparatus. First position : 
kneel on the left knee, the face looking straight for- 
ward, the right arm extended above head, the left at 
the waist. The head and entire trunk are then slowly 
turned to the left, the right arm following, this second 
position being the one shown in the figure. This is held 
for a moment, when the original pose is resumed. After 
three or four of these movements to the left side, the 
knee- position should be shifted to the other leg and the 
turning be made to the right. The effects of this simple 
exercise will be distinctly felt in the sides of the waist, the 
abdominal and groin muscles, and assist the circulation 
of these parts. 



I06 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

The second exercise (Fig. i8) is given with a chest 
weight, since these machines are, we are pleased to see, 
very commonly found in many houses. 

The figure very well illustrates the position in which 
the handles of the chest weight are to be seized, after 
which the person rises to the upright, carrying the 
weights with her, returning again to the bent-leg position, 
and alternately raising and lowering the body in this way 
a dozen or more times. The weights should be light at 
first, perhaps only one (which equals two and a half 
pounds) being used ; later, from five to ten pounds or 
more may be used, according to the ability of the 
person. 

It would be an easy matter to add indefinitely to the 
number of these exercises, and to include in the selec- 
tion many admirable movements that may be taken on 
machines specially adapted to develop each region of the 
body. Chest weights have become so common a piece 
of property, and each maker so enterprising with sugges- 
tions as to the use of his machine, that it seems unneces- 
sary to add anything in this direction. That apparatus 
is useful, and often adds greatly to the interest of 
classes exercising, the writer knows, both from theory 
and from experience ; but chest weights cannot always 
be found where books are read. Arms and legs and un- 
developed bodies, however, may always be found ; and 
where these are brought together, we would remind our 




Fig. i8. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 107 

readers that development need never suffer because of 
the lack of a perfect gymnasium, desirable as the latter 
is for the complete physical training of young people. 

Every girl who has a will to do it can improve the 
body she has, if it needs improvement, either in the 
line of strength and health, or of suppleness and ease, 
by persevering practice of even such a simple and in- 
complete list as here given, although we would once more 
remind the reader that the exercises here given are only 
suggestive of means by which she may accomplish much 
for her physical development. 

As to the use of apparatus, one or two general cautions 
might not be out of place. Foreign books, or transla- 
tions of the same, advise much heavier weights for the 
use of women and girls than is either customary or held 
desirable in America. It is the practice of the writer to 
recommend very light dumb-bells and clubs to all women, 
except a few highly advanced or otherwise exceptional 
pupils. A one-pound weight for both dumb-bell and 
club will be found sufficient for the average girl from 
twelve upward, and chest weights in proportion. 

Most of the simpler exercises here suggested can be 
used with or without dumb-bells. 

As to the amount of exercise necessary for health, it 
is estimated that a young woman of twenty should take 
exercise sufficient to be equal a walk of about five miles, 
daily ; but if much less distance than this can be accom- 



I08 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 

plished, the required amount should be gained by home 
gymnastics or gymnasium practice. The best hour for 
vigorous persons is before breakfast ; for the more deli- 
cate two hours after breakfast, or between four and five 
in the afternoon. 



THE END. 



I U M 'HQ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 708 288 7 



■ ■¥ 


m 


■ -h 


^{Sr-' 








-si 


' 'r.M 






m 









'^^- : -Iff: 



M 



